Sir, – I am surprised to read that several eminent legal practitioners and academics condone the hacking and wiretapping of communications between defence lawyers and their clients (February 22nd).
The law here in Spain recognises attorney-client privilege which protects the confidentiality of such communications. Consequently Judge Garzón broke the law. He merely lost his licence to practise as a judge. If I had arranged to wiretap such confidential conversations, I would probably get a jail sentence.
The pending case against Judge Garzón for accepting succulent payments for speaking engagements, paid for by Spain’s most powerful bank, while practising as the state’s magistrate was mysteriously dropped. Furthermore, many Spaniards accept the agreed pact not to prosecute for crimes of the Franco regime in order to secure a peaceful transition to democracy and so avoid another civil war, was a justified price to pay for peace. – Yours, etc,