Spanish judge accused of abusing position by opening investigation into deaths of 114,000 people under Franco

This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

Observers from the world's main human rights groups are in Madrid to monitor the second trial of the Spanish magistrate Baltasar Garzón, who is accused of abusing his position by opening an investigation into the deaths of 114,000 people during the Franco dictatorship.

Garzón faces a 20-year ban if found guilty of knowingly twisting the law by investigating Francoist human rights abuses in a case that opened at the supreme court on Tuesday morning.

Garzon appeared relaxed during the opening session of the trial, which his supporters say is politically motivated.

It is the most polemical of three separate but almost simultaneous cases in which the judge is accused of wilful abuse of his powers as an investigating magistrate at Spain's national court.

Amnesty International (AI), Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the International Commission of Jurists (IJC) have all sent observers amid concerns that Garzón is being targeted because of his innovative use of international human rights laws.

"On principle, Amnesty doesn't give an opinion on the charges faced by a single person – but the Garzón case is an exception and we cannot remain silent on it," Hugo Relva, the legal adviser to AI, said.

"It is simply scandalous and unacceptable. The charges should be dropped and the case closed.

"This case affects the independence of judicial power in Spain. Other judges see it as a warning about what might happen to them if they continue with their own investigations."

Reed Brody, of HRW, warned that judges in less developed countries were also watching nervously to see whether the developed world was happy to accept that limits be put on human rights investigations.

"This is the first time that an established democracy has tried a judge for investigating human rights abuses and applying international law," he added.

Brody pointed to the importance of Garzón's investigations of human rights abuses committed by the regime of the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and by Argentina's military juntas in pushing forward the global reach of human rights laws.

"He is being tried for applying the same principles that he successfully defended then," he said, referring to Garzón's arrest of Pinochet in London and the jailing of Argentine torturers in Madrid.

Garzón's investigations had helped persuade judges in Latin America to strike out amnesty laws and put dictators and their henchmen on trial, he added, saying: "Will Franco's victims now have fewer rights than Pinochet's victims?"

Pedro Nikken, of the IJC, said Garzón had been right to ignore Spain's own 1977 amnesty law when investigating Francoist repression. "International human rights law comes into play when national laws do not provide enough protection," he said. "A judge is obliged to take that into account.

"We hope the supreme court takes this opportunity to make that clear."

This is Garzón's second trial in the space of a fortnight. Last week, the same court placed him in the dock to answer charges that he knowingly abused his powers by allowing police to listen in to conversations between remand prisoners and their lawyers.

Garzón is also due to be tried on similar charges involving a case in which a private prosecution alleges he should have ruled himself out of making decisions on a case involving the Santander Bank because it had financed a conference he was involved with in New York.

"To face these sorts of charges once is rare enough," a senior court prosecutor, who asked not to be named, said. "To face them three times is simply unheard of."

The case against Garzón for investigating Francoist crimes has been brought privately by a tiny trade union with far-right connections called Clean Hands.

"In Spain we have an amnesty law, agreed by our parliament," Miguel Bernad, of Clean Hands, said. "Garzón has simply skipped over it."

Bernad said Garzón had previously turned down a petition to investigate a massacre committed by leftwingers during Spain's civil war precisely because of the amnesty law. He had also declared himself competent when the case belonged to a lower court, and had named 34 dead people, including Franco, as suspects.

The case will take several weeks to hear, with more than a dozen victims of Franco's repression, or relatives of those who were killed, giving evidence.