Spanish supreme court shelves corruption case involving Garzon

Feb 13, 2012, 12:52 GMT

Madrid - Spain's Supreme Court on Monday shelved an inquiry into an alleged bribery case involving judge Baltasar Garzon, on the grounds that it had come under the statute of limitations, court sources said.

The court had previously debarred the judge, who is known for his human rights investigations, for 11 years in a separate case.

In the corruption case, Garzon had decided not to investigate a complaint against the Santander bank after allegedly receiving funds from it in sponsorship of courses he organized at a New York university in 2005-06.

The judge has denied any wrongdoing.

The court last week suspended Garzon for 11 years on charges of illegally wiretapping conversations between jailed corruption suspects and their lawyers in 2009. During the trial, the judge said he had only tried to prevent the lawyers from helping the suspects launder criminal money.

Garzon has also been put on the dock for trying to launch Spain's first judicial investigation into the crimes of 1939-75 dictator Francisco Franco.

About 2,000 people demonstrated against the judicial proceedings against Garzon on Sunday. They said Spain's most famous judge was being 'lynched' by corrupt politicians whom he had investigated and by a political right sympathetic to Franco.

Garzon's supporters believe his opponents wanted to force him out of the judiciary. Since that has been achieved with the wiretapping verdict, the Supreme Court can now afford to drop the other charges against the judge, analysts said.