Luciano Varela
Encyclopedia
Luciano Varela Castro is a senior Spanish Judge. He was born at (Pontevedra
, in Galicia during 1948) and is married with four children.
for 23 years, and has been a judge Spanish
Judge
of the Supreme Court of Spain
since 2007.
Since October 2007 Varela has served on the Criminal Division of the Supreme Court
. Among his many actions appears the case of Judge Francisco Javier de Urquia in April 2009 which determined that there was no crime of trespass
but bribery
, for which he was sentenced to 21 months of suspension from office and fined € 73,800, the minimum provided by law.
. Garzón was charged with an alleged crime of trespass
in the case of the Franco crimes, following a complaint by the ultra-conservative quasi-union officials Manos Limpias
, which accused Garzón of knowingly issuing unlawful orders and or decisions
In the first order dated February 3, 2010 Varela believes that Baltasar Garzón
"... acted with the purpose of circumventing the legislature's decision on the rules for locating and exhuming victims of the horrendous crimes of the Franco era, knowing that they had been subject to a law of amnesty democratically enacted by the state of Spain, whose will Garzón deliberately chose to ignore or circumvent, "and that this fact may constitute a crime of prevarication.' (Prevarication in Spanish signifies a legal act or maneuver intended to pervert the course of Justice)
In the same order, Varela, as the instructor, declared his court competent to process the case and ordered Garzón to testify as a defendant in criminal proceedings.
Sone commentators allege that Varela is hostile to Garzón, for reasons that go back many years " and the spokesman for Judges for Democracy
, Victoria Rosell, considered that the action against Garzón Varela was to "criminalize legal debate." By contrast, José Luis Barreiro, columnist and politician of the conservative People's Party
, from his column in the conservative local newspaper La Voz de Galicia
, argued that we are seeing the clash between two visions of the role of judges; Varela's vision, argues Barreiro, is that the judge should apply the law putting aside the problems of humanity; while Garzón's vision, still argues Barreiro, is that justice is a specific way to govern the world.
On April 7, 2010, pursuant to Criminal Procedure Law Spanish, Judge of the Supreme decided to transform action into a simplified 'summary procedure' indicting judge Baltasar Garzon on suspicion of crime of trespass
that he committed his court to engage, without jurisdictional competence, a cause for the disappearances of various persons during the Franco era.
Varela's decision completes the preparation phase of the trial, which means that Garzon will sit on in the dock when the accusers provide evidence against him. The judge considers that the decisions rendered by the court of Garzón during the investigation of disappearances of persons during the Franco era are unlawful and not objective. Center-right newspaper el Mundo
, which is against Garzon's decision, said in an editorial that "the politics of memory are nasty" and constitute a "bloodless form of vengeance." El Mundo reported that the judge, specifically accuses Garzón of having, in his capacity as a judge of the National Court, of having willfully initiated and sustained allegations against o deceased persons who were anyway granted amnesty by the law of 1978 and moreover, the presiding judge well knew that such investigation was not within his competence
Pontevedra
Pontevedra is a city in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. It is the capital of both the comarca and province of Pontevedra, in Galicia . It is also the capital of its own municipality which is, in fact, often considered as an extension of the actual city...
, in Galicia during 1948) and is married with four children.
Career
Luciano Varela Castro was a judge of the Audiencia Provincial of PontevedraPontevedra
Pontevedra is a city in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. It is the capital of both the comarca and province of Pontevedra, in Galicia . It is also the capital of its own municipality which is, in fact, often considered as an extension of the actual city...
for 23 years, and has been a judge Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
Judge
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
of the Supreme Court of Spain
Supreme Court of Spain
The Supreme Court of Spain is the highest court in Spain for all matters not pertaining to the Spanish Constitution. The court which meets in the Convent of the Salesas Reales in Madrid, consists of a president and an indeterminate number of magistrates appointed to the five chambers of the...
since 2007.
- Varela was a founder of the association Judges for DemocracyJudges for DemocracyJudges for Democracy is one of the five Spanish, professional associations of judges and magistrates. Since judges and magistrates in Spain are barred from joining class trade unions professional associations, are intended to protect the rights and interests of judges and magistrates...
and a law professor at the University of SantiagoUniversity of SantiagoUniversity of Santiago can refer to:* University of Santiago de Cuba* Universidad de Santiago de Chile in Chile* University of Santiago de Compostela, in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia...
. - He created themagazineXurídica Galega, a promoter of the use of Galician languageGalician languageGalician is a language of the Western Ibero-Romance branch, spoken in Galicia, an autonomous community located in northwestern Spain, where it is co-official with Castilian Spanish, as well as in border zones of the neighbouring territories of Asturias and Castile and León.Modern Galician and...
in judicial proceedings
- Varela has, in conjunction with other judges, encouraged many students of judicature, of which 40 are now judges and prosecutors, including two of the judge's children.
- He was also the author of the draft law of the Court of JuradoJuradoJurado may refer to:* Álvaro Jurado , football player* Antonio Torres Jurado , guitarist* Carlos Jurado , football player* Damien Jurado, singer-songwriter* Enrique M...
popular, which, after the coming parliamentary procedure, to be published in the BOEBoe- Abbreviations, acronyms or initialisms :* Bank of England, the central bank of the United Kingdom* Barrel of oil equivalent, a unit of energy* Bastards of Evil, a comic book supervillain team* Bill of Exchange* Blades of Exile, a computer role-playing game...
with the official name ofLaw 5 / 1995 22 May, the Court of the Jury.
Since October 2007 Varela has served on the Criminal Division of the Supreme Court
Supreme Court of Spain
The Supreme Court of Spain is the highest court in Spain for all matters not pertaining to the Spanish Constitution. The court which meets in the Convent of the Salesas Reales in Madrid, consists of a president and an indeterminate number of magistrates appointed to the five chambers of the...
. Among his many actions appears the case of Judge Francisco Javier de Urquia in April 2009 which determined that there was no crime of trespass
Trespass
Trespass is an area of tort law broadly divided into three groups: trespass to the person, trespass to chattels and trespass to land.Trespass to the person, historically involved six separate trespasses: threats, assault, battery, wounding, mayhem, and maiming...
but bribery
Bribery
Bribery, a form of corruption, is an act implying money or gift giving that alters the behavior of the recipient. Bribery constitutes a crime and is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official or...
, for which he was sentenced to 21 months of suspension from office and fined € 73,800, the minimum provided by law.
The auto against Baltasar Garzon
In 2009 Varela was appointed instructor in the case of the 'Star' National Court judge Baltasar Garzón Real,(internationally famous for prosecuting the dictator of Chile Augusto PinochetAugusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...
. Garzón was charged with an alleged crime of trespass
Trespass
Trespass is an area of tort law broadly divided into three groups: trespass to the person, trespass to chattels and trespass to land.Trespass to the person, historically involved six separate trespasses: threats, assault, battery, wounding, mayhem, and maiming...
in the case of the Franco crimes, following a complaint by the ultra-conservative quasi-union officials Manos Limpias
Manos Limpias
Manos Limpias is a fascist trade union registered in Spain. The group was inspired and founded in Madrid in 1995 by the Spanish lawyer Miguel Bernad Remón, as an organization representing employees of the Spanish public services. The union has no institutional representation as of 2009...
, which accused Garzón of knowingly issuing unlawful orders and or decisions
In the first order dated February 3, 2010 Varela believes that Baltasar Garzón
Baltasar Garzón
Baltasar Garzón Real is a Spanish jurist who served on Spain's central criminal court, the Audiencia Nacional. He was the examining magistrate of the Juzgado Central de Instrucción No...
"... acted with the purpose of circumventing the legislature's decision on the rules for locating and exhuming victims of the horrendous crimes of the Franco era, knowing that they had been subject to a law of amnesty democratically enacted by the state of Spain, whose will Garzón deliberately chose to ignore or circumvent, "and that this fact may constitute a crime of prevarication.' (Prevarication in Spanish signifies a legal act or maneuver intended to pervert the course of Justice)
In the same order, Varela, as the instructor, declared his court competent to process the case and ordered Garzón to testify as a defendant in criminal proceedings.
Sone commentators allege that Varela is hostile to Garzón, for reasons that go back many years " and the spokesman for Judges for Democracy
Judges for Democracy
Judges for Democracy is one of the five Spanish, professional associations of judges and magistrates. Since judges and magistrates in Spain are barred from joining class trade unions professional associations, are intended to protect the rights and interests of judges and magistrates...
, Victoria Rosell, considered that the action against Garzón Varela was to "criminalize legal debate." By contrast, José Luis Barreiro, columnist and politician of the conservative People's Party
People's Party (Spain)
The People's Party is a conservative political party in Spain.The People's Party was a re-foundation in 1989 of the People's Alliance , a party led and founded by Manuel Fraga Iribarne, a former Minister of Tourism during Francisco Franco's dictatorship...
, from his column in the conservative local newspaper La Voz de Galicia
La Voz de Galicia
La Voz de Galicia is a Spanish daily newspaper owned by the Corporación Voz de Galicia. La Voz is the most sold newspaper in Galicia and the sixth of Spain...
, argued that we are seeing the clash between two visions of the role of judges; Varela's vision, argues Barreiro, is that the judge should apply the law putting aside the problems of humanity; while Garzón's vision, still argues Barreiro, is that justice is a specific way to govern the world.
On April 7, 2010, pursuant to Criminal Procedure Law Spanish, Judge of the Supreme decided to transform action into a simplified 'summary procedure' indicting judge Baltasar Garzon on suspicion of crime of trespass
Trespass
Trespass is an area of tort law broadly divided into three groups: trespass to the person, trespass to chattels and trespass to land.Trespass to the person, historically involved six separate trespasses: threats, assault, battery, wounding, mayhem, and maiming...
that he committed his court to engage, without jurisdictional competence, a cause for the disappearances of various persons during the Franco era.
Varela's decision completes the preparation phase of the trial, which means that Garzon will sit on in the dock when the accusers provide evidence against him. The judge considers that the decisions rendered by the court of Garzón during the investigation of disappearances of persons during the Franco era are unlawful and not objective. Center-right newspaper el Mundo
El Mundo (Spain)
El Mundo is the second largest printed and the largest digital daily newspaper in Spain and one of the newspapers of record in that country, with a daily circulation topping 300,000 readers for the printed edition and 24 million unique web visitors per month for the...
, which is against Garzon's decision, said in an editorial that "the politics of memory are nasty" and constitute a "bloodless form of vengeance." El Mundo reported that the judge, specifically accuses Garzón of having, in his capacity as a judge of the National Court, of having willfully initiated and sustained allegations against o deceased persons who were anyway granted amnesty by the law of 1978 and moreover, the presiding judge well knew that such investigation was not within his competence
External links
- Entre la independencia y el control. Artículo de Varela Castro en el sitio web de la asociación Jueces para la Democracia, de la cual es su fundador.
- El forjador de jueces En Faro de VigoFaro de VigoFaro de Vigo is a Galician newspaper from Vigo. It is the oldest Spanish newspaper still in circulation. Its headquarters are located in Chapela, Redondela...
, 7/02/2010. - El Tribunal Supremo, en la cuerda floja Bonifacio de la Cuadra en El País, 10/03/2010.
- http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/09/opinion/09fri2.html?ref=opinion"España necesita un repaso honesto de su problemático pasado, no el enjuiciamiento de quienes tienen el valor de denunciarlo". ("Spain needs an honest accounting of its troubled past, not prosecution of those who have the courage to demand it"). "Los crímenes reales en este caso son las desapariciones, no la investigación del Sr. Garzón." ("The real crimes in this case are the disappearances, not Mr. Garzón's investigation").] En The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. - Cruzada contra Garzón En The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
. - "Luciano Varela, un especialista en perder por poco", por Manuel Jabois, Diario de Pontevedra, 18-4-10.
- La opinión del periodista Iñaki Gabilondo en su programa de noticias publicado en Youtube "Persecución fascista al juez Baltasar Garzón por investigar el genocidio franquista".
- Artículo de Joaquín Leguina en El Pais "Enterrar a los muertos".
- Varela, un provocador en busca de notoriedad, en EL PAÍS