Juan Guzmán Tapia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Juan Salvador Guzmán Tapia (b. April 22, 1939) is a retired Chilean judge who became famous internationally for being the first judge to prosecute former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet on human rights charges, after Pinochet's return to Chile, following several months of under arrest in London, England.
Guzmán was born in San Salvador, El Salvador to Juan Guzmán Cruchaga into a Chilean diplomatic family. He studied Law at the University of Chile and did postgraduate studies in Paris. He began his judicial career in 1970 and was a member of the Santiago Appeals Court.
Guzmán retired from his judge position in 2005.
[edit] Prosecution of Augusto Pinochet
On 12 January 1998, human rights lawyers in Chile submitted the first of more than 70 lawsuits against General Pinochet. Guzmán was appointed to take charge of the investigation. Arrested in London in October 1998 under orders of Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón, Pinochet was finally deemed unfit for trial and returned home in March 2000.
In June 1999, Guzmán ordered the arrest of five retired military officers —including a general— for their part in a military squad whose exploits became known in Chile as the Caravan of Death. The members of this squad are accused of travelling in the country in October 1973, shortly after Pinochet's coup, and killing more than 70 opponents of the military government.
Guzmán secured the arrests by applying a new interpretation of the 1978 auto-amnesty law. He argued that since many of the bodies of the military squad's victims were still missing, it could be argued legally that these people are still kidnapped. Therefore, Mr Guzmán argued, the crime is continuing and neither the auto-amnesty law nor the statute of limitations could be applied until the bodies are found: permanent sequestration crime was created by this jurisprudence, thus permitting prosecution for the forced disappearances.
In November 1999, Guzmán sent to Pinochet in London a list of 75 questions, which the General refused to answer. On 3 March, 2000, Pinochet returned to Chile. Three days later, Guzmán entered a request for Pinochet's parliamentary immunity to be lifted.
Answering to this request, Chilean Supreme Court stripped Pinochet's immunity in August 2000, and later declared him fit to stand trial.
In December 2000, Guzmán formally charged Pinochet for kidnapping during his 1973-1990 dictatorship, and questioned him for two hours in January 2001 after doctors said he was fit to undergo interrogation. That same month, Guzmán placed the general under house arrest.
In July 2001, the charges were suspended and later dropped on health grounds. In May 2004, the Court striped him again of his immunity from prosecution over fresh charges concerning operation Condor. In September 2005, the Court acceded to Juan Guzman's request to strip Pinochet of his immunity concerning operation Colombo.
[edit] Critics
Critics complain against his perceived eagerness for public attention; this, they claim, may have led to hastily prepared investigations ending in acquittal verdicts.
