LEAD: Spanish judge pleads innocent at trial over Franco probe

Feb 8, 2012, 14:46 GMT

Madrid - Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon told the Supreme Court Wednesday he had a 'tranquil conscience,' at the final session of a trial dealing with his attempt to investigate the crimes of 1939-75 dictator Francisco Franco.

The court, which is due to decide whether he was guilty of professional misconduct, was expected to issue a verdict in the near future.

Two conservative groups that had sued Garzon asked for him to be suspended for 20 years. That would spell the end of the 56-year-old judge's career.

Garzon's defence requested his acquittal, arguing that the relatives Franco's victims had been 'totally abandoned' because the fate of their loved ones had never been investigated.

The far-right group Manos Limpias, one of the plaintiffs against Garzon, said he had no right to try to judge 'a movement and an era.'

About 100 Garzon supporters demonstrated outside the court, displaying red carnations and pictures of disappeared people, and claiming that the Supreme Court was dominated by Francoist judges.

In 2008, requests by associations representing Franco's victims prompted Garzon to launch Spain's first judicial inquiry into the dictatorship's crimes.

He accused Franco and his collaborators of the killings of more than 100,000 opponents during the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War and the ensuing dictatorship.

The investigation came under pressure from some legal experts and conservative politicians, and Garzon eventually transferred it to regional courts.

Several conservative groups then sued Garzon, arguing that he had overstepped his authority and ignored an amnesty that was granted in 1977 for civil war-era crimes.

The judge maintained his innocence during the trial, saying he had done his duty in investigating crimes against humanity that were not covered by the amnesty.

The amnesty, which was granted during Spain's transition from dictatorship to democracy, was aimed at allowing the divided nation to heal.

Garzon is internationally known for his attempt to extradite former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1998. He has also investigated alleged human rights violations elsewhere, ranging from Argentina to Guantanamo and Western Sahara.