Renowned Spanish judge convicted for wiretaps

Spain’s Supreme Court convicted judge Baltasar Garzon in an illegal wiretapping case, crushing the career of a man who won world renown for pursuing human rights abuses.

The decision halts the rise of a judge who has taken on dictators, Basque militants and even al-Qaida, but who stumbled when he tangled with a corruption probe targeting senior politicians.

Garzon, 56, who earned international fame for trying to extradite Chile’s former dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1998, was found guilty of ordering illegal recordings of corruption suspects talking to their lawyers.