He is the crusading Spanish "superjudge", a formidable investigator who has built a global reputation as the man who forces the powerful to bow to the might of the law. Everyone from corrupt officials to Latin American dictators and Eta terrorists have come to fear the silver-haired magistrate at Spain's national court.
But Baltasar Garzón, who has taken aim at Augusto Pinochet and Silvio Berlusconi, among others, now finds himself pursued on three different fronts as a series of writs challenging his impartiality and accusing him of abuse of authority are investigated by the supreme court.
Antagonists say the "superjuez" is abusing his power to take on his adversaries. But his supporters see the attacks as an orchestrated campaign designed to prevent him investigating corruption in the rightwing opposition People's party (PP) and to punish him for daring to challenge one of Spain's most potent ghosts, former dictator General Francisco Franco. They also see personal enemies within Spain's highly politicised judiciary ganging up against him.
In a controversial move, Socialist prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero stepped into the polemic this week, reminding Spaniards of Garzón's successes against Eta. "His career record will always be remembered by the majority of Spaniards and certainly by the government of Spain," he said.
The comment angered the PP, whose disgraced business friends are behind one of the supreme court writs. That writ claims the investigating magistrate overstepped his authority by allowing police to bug suspects in a PP corruption scandal while they spoke to their lawyers. PP leader Mariano Rajoy accused Zapatero of trying "to put pressure on the supreme court."
In a separate writ, Garzón has been accused of failing to step aside from a case involving a bank, Santander, which his accusers claim financed his sabbatical year at New York University. The university has denied he received money, either directly or indirectly, from the bank, which sponsored some events he took part in there.
A third case has seen far-right supporters of General Franco accuse Garzón of abusing his powers by opening an investigation into the former dictator's regime in connection with the death or disappearance of up to 115,000 people.
Garzón remains unbowed. "I will not go away," he declared this week. "I am absolutely innocent and I shall prove it."
Emilio Silva, head of the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory - which would like to see Franco's surviving henchmen in court, said: "The irony is that Garzón is the only person now being pursued through the courts because of Francoism crimes."
Joan Garcés, a lawyer acting for some of those trying to see off Garzón's enemies, said: "What is at stake here is Spain's vision of its own past." Garcés is also one of the lawyers who persuaded Garzón to issue an international arrest warrant for former Chilean dictator General Pinochet to face charges for crimes against humanity 12 years ago. As a result, Pinochet was arrested in London. British courts upheld the extradition to Spain, but the then home secretary, Jack Straw, sent him back to Chile on health grounds.
Leftwing commentators have expressed outrage that the supreme court has agreed to investigate the writs, even though the attorney general's office sees no evidence that the judge has overstepped his powers. However, the list of Garzon's personal and political enemies is so long that many of the supreme court judges who must decide on his cases are also finding their impartiality challenged by his supporters.
Judge Margarita Robles, a former junior interior minister in ex-socialist prime minister Felipe Gonzalez's governments, has already agreed to stand aside.
Gonzalez's government was brought down in part because of Garzón's investigation into a dirty war fought by the state against Eta - a war that was then covered up by socialist ministers. Robles said she was doing what Garzón should have done when, after briefly entering politics as a Gonzalez ally and then falling out with the prime minister, he returned to his previous job and continued to pursue the dirty war case.
Other judges have been challenged on Garzón's behalf by the grandaughter of Juan Negrín, the last president of Spain's second republic - overthrown by General Franco's rightwing rebels in the Spanish civil war in the 1930s.
She has reminded the court that judges who started their career before Franco's death swore an oath of allegiance. They include the current head of the supreme court, she alleges.
Garzón's law
The 'dirty war' against Eta
Garzón showed that Spain's interior ministry financed a campaign waged by mercenaries and radical rightwingers using the name of the Anti-terrorist Liberation Group (GAL). Police officers were involved and socialist ministers helped cover it up.
Pinochet
The Chilean dictator was arrested in London in 1998 on the orders of Garzón, who tested the limits of international human rights law by claiming that he could be tried anywhere for the crimes he had committed (as these could not be tried in Chile). Pinochet was held under house arrest in London until the home secretary, Jack Straw, used his powers to send him home to Chile - alleging that he was too ill to stand trial.
Eta
Judge Garzón vowed to concentrate his efforts on Eta after the Basque terrorist group gunned down a companion from the national court, prosecutor Carmen Tagle. He has since been in charge of many anti-Eta operations and, more controversially, against Eta's political wing and Basque newspapers.
Franco
A case against General Francisco Franco's former regime opened the possibility that, despite an amnesty law, Spain might eventually put some of his henchmen on trial
The Gurtel case
This corruption case concentrates on the rightwing opposition People's party, especially its regional governments in Madrid and Valencia. The judge is looking at contracts, backhanders and possible illegal party funding.
