Spain’s embattled super judge denies wrongdoing in testimony in 2nd probe

Embattled Spanish judge testifies to Supreme Court

MADRID — Spain’s most prominent judge, already charged with abuse of power in a potentially career-ending indictment, denied any wrongdoing as he testified Thursday as a suspect in a separate bribery investigation that has compounded his legal woes.

Judge Baltasar Garzon — internationally known for having gone after former Chilean ruler Augusto Pinochet and Osama bin Laden in Spain’s court system — testified for more than four hours as a suspect before the Supreme Court.

The bribery case centers on allegations that a big Spanish bank accused of tax fraud got lenient treatment from Garzon after it financed seminars he ran while on leave in New York City a few years ago.

In the other, bigger case, Garzon could be suspended as early as next week. The Supreme Court indicted him last week on charges of overstepping his power in investigating the executions and disappearances of tens of thousands of civilians by rightist forces loyal to Gen. Francisco Franco during and after Spain’s 1936-39 Civil War. The crimes were covered by an amnesty decreed in 1977.

That abuse of power case, stemming from a complaint filed by far-right groups, has raised a political storm in Spain with almost daily protests outside the National Court in the magistrate’s favor.

On Thursday, a handful of people shouted “innocent, innocent” as Garzon walked the 200 yards (meters) separating the National Court from the Supreme Court in downtown Madrid.

The Supreme Court is probing money that Banco Santander paid to finance seminars Garzon directed while on sabbatical at New York University in 2005-2006.

Two lawyers, Antonio Panea and Jose Luis Mazon, accuse him of perverting the course of justice and bribery. During his stay in New York, Banco Santander provided $300,000 for Garzon to organize seminars on human rights. Five months after returning to Madrid and resuming his post, Garzon shelved a tax fraud case filed against the bank’s chairman, Emilio Botin, and other bank executives.

In his testimony Thursday, Garzon denied getting any of that money from the bank and said it all went right to the university to set up the seminars. The judge “did not receive any of that contribution from Banco Santander,” Garzon’s attorney, Enrique Molina, said after the testimony concluded.

Garzon’s legal team had previously presented a letter from New York University also saying the judge was not the recipient of any of the money Banco Santander paid.

The judge also is being investigated by the Supreme Court in a third case, this one over jailhouse wiretaps he ordered in a corruption probe that has tainted Spain’s conservative opposition Popular Party.