Spain: judge drops civil war probe
Spain's most famous judge abandoned a drive for a symbolic indictment of the late Gen. Francisco Franco and his regime, dropping a probe Tuesday into atrocities committed during and after the country's ruinous civil war.
Judge Baltasar Garzon reluctantly yielded in a dispute over jurisdiction, and transferred the case to lower courts.
Garzon, a human rights and terrorism crusader known for going after Osama bin Laden and Chile's late Augusto Pinochet, launched a probe last month into the killings of tens of thousands of civilians by Franco supporters during the 1936-39 war and in the early years of his right-wing rule.
It was the first official investigation into a still-divisive period of history which had been taboo for many Spaniards, and was shaping up as another huge case for Garzon.
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Judge Baltasar Garzon reluctantly yielded in a dispute over jurisdiction, and transferred the case to lower courts.
Garzon, a human rights and terrorism crusader known for going after Osama bin Laden and Chile's late Augusto Pinochet, launched a probe last month into the killings of tens of thousands of civilians by Franco supporters during the 1936-39 war and in the early years of his right-wing rule.
It was the first official investigation into a still-divisive period of history which had been taboo for many Spaniards, and was shaping up as another huge case for Garzon.