Spanish official: embattled judge Garzon who indicted Pinochet, bin Laden seeking leave

Spain: embattled judge seeks leave of absence

MADRID — The high-profile Spanish judge who indicted Augusto Pinochet and Osama bin Laden is seeking to take a leave of absence as he awaits trial on charges of abuse of authority in a domestic case, a court official said Tuesday.

Judge Baltasar Garzon has accepted an offer for a seven-month assignment as an adviser at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, said the official at the National Court, where Garzon works.

Garzon, 54, is not resigning, and his departure will not affect the case against him in Spain for having launched a probe of Spanish civil war atrocities that were covered by an amnesty, the official said on condition of anonymity in line with court policy.

But the transfer is a way to dodge the almost certain suspension that Garzon faces once his trial starts some time in the next few months.

Garzon received a job offer at the International Criminal Court from Luis Moreno Ocampo, an Argentine who is its chief prosecutor, the official said.

A Spanish judicial oversight board has to decide whether to grant Garzon the leave of absence. The newspaper El Pais said the panel will discuss this on Wednesday.

Garzon was indicted last month by a Supreme Court judge on charges he knowingly overstepped the bounds of his jurisdiction by launching in 2008 a probe of the execution or disappearance of more than 100,000 civilians at the hands of supporters of Gen. Francisco Franco during the 1936-39 war and in the early years of the Franco dictatorship.

Garzon denies any wrongdoing and says his probe was legitimate. If convicted, he faces removal from the National Court for up to 20 years.

The Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory, a group that backed Garzon in his efforts to probe atrocities, said the judge has been reduced to “a political refugee in The Hague.” It said his departure is probably part of a deal to spare Garzon from actually going on trial.

Garzon also is under investigation in two others cases: one involving money that a Spanish bank paid to sponsor human rights seminars he gave while on sabbatical in New York a few years ago, and another in connection with jailhouse wiretaps he ordered as part of a corruption probe.

The judge has been assigned to the National Court since 1988, and earned a reputation as a tireless sleuth as he took on big cases in everything from corruption and drug trafficking to human rights abuses during Latin American dictatorship and Islamic terrorism, including prosecution of a Spain-based cell charged with helping prepare the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.