Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Spain’s Supreme Court yesterday quashed a bribe-taking case against rights judge Baltasar Garzon, who has already been barred from the judiciary for 11 years.
The court ruled that a three-year statute of limitations had passed in the case against the judge, who won global renown by trying to extradite Chile’s former dictator Augusto Pinochet from London in 1998.
Garzon was accused of soliciting sponsorship payments for lectures he gave in New York.
The Supreme Court found there was evidence of a crime but ruled the statute of limitations had passed because the last payment was received on May 17, 2006, more than three years before he was charged.
The judgement came just four days after Garzon, 56, was convicted for ordering wiretaps in a corruption probe, a decision criticised by his supporters as a political stitch-up.
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