Garzón cleared in atrocity inquiry

Baltasar Garzón was acquitted today of charges stemming from his opening of an investigation into criminal violations of human rights that occurred during Spain's decades of dictatorship under General Francisco Franco.
Madrid daily El País reports that Spain's Supreme Court voted 6 to 1 to clear Garzón of the charge of prevaricación, an offense that IntLawGrrl Naomi Roht-Arriaza described in an earlier post. Though the court "considered" that Garzón had "committed an error," the majority determined that his "errors" did not rise to the level of the crime charged.
Notwithstanding this verdict, Garzón remains stripped of his post as a Spanish magistrate, having been convicted of illegal wiretapping in a separate case.