Madrid ( CNN ) -- Spain 's best-known judge will be suspended for 11 years from the bench after his conviction Thursday for improperly ordering wiretaps while investigating a financial corruption case , the nation 's Supreme Court ruled . Afterward , Baltasar Garzon said he `` rejects '' the sentence , that the court convicted him in `` an unjust and predetermined manner , '' and he vowed to appeal . In a statement late Thursday , Garzon said , `` This sentence , without judicial reason nor evidence to support it , eliminates all possibility to investigate corruption and related crimes by opening spaces of impunity , and seriously contributing -- in an effort to stop one specific judge -- to reduced independence for Spanish judges . '' Garzon had ordered wiretaps against suspects who were in jail and under investigation in the case , allowing authorities to listen in on their conversations with defense attorneys and others . Their lawyers later filed a lawsuit , arguing that the wiretapping violated their constitutional right of attorney-client privilege . A seven-judge panel at the Supreme Court convicted Garzon , according to court documents . A second trial against Garzon ended on Wednesday , but judges have not yet ruled in the case . That case concerns his investigation of human rights abuses under the former dictatorship of Francisco Franco in Spain . Human rights groups say both cases , especially the second one , amount to a vendetta against Garzon , who became known internationally for his investigation into human rights abuses under former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet . Garzon , 56 , was suspended provisionally from the bench in 2010 , pending these trials . A third case is under investigation , but no trial has been set . At a three-day trial last month in the financial corruption case , Garzon professed innocence . The case implicated some leading conservative politicians , among others , and there have been trials recently against defendants in the corruption scandal known as Gurtel . Garzon said his wiretap orders , in early 2009 , were backed by state prosecutors , who did not bring charges against Garzon . He testified that he ordered the wiretaps on suspicion that suspects in the case were involved in money laundering while they were in preventative prison . But the Supreme Court judges wrote , `` The central question to be resolved in this case is related to the fundamental right of defense for the suspect , against the legitimate interest of the State to pursue crimes , '' the sentence said . `` It is not possible to have a just process if the right of defense is essentially eliminated . '' The sentence added that Garzon 's investigation had the effect of `` admitting practices which now are found only in totalitarian regimes where anything is considered valid to obtain the desired information . '' Garzon 's possible avenues for appeal include the Constitutional Court -- Spain 's highest court , which rules on constitutional issues -- or to the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg , France . Julio Villarrubia , a leader of Spain 's main opposition Socialist Party , said the party `` respects '' the decision of the court but finds it `` troubling that Judge Garzon , who has fought tirelessly against drug trafficking , terrorism and corruption , '' is now convicted . Human rights groups consider the second case against Garzon , for his investigation of mass graves under Franco 's rule , to be the more important one . In the second trial , state prosecutors again did not press charges , but a private prosecution , allowed under Spanish law , did . It is led by a small civil servants union called Manos Limpias , or Clean Hands , which charged that Garzon ignored an amnesty law approved in the Spanish Parliament in 1977 , two years after Franco 's death . In that trial , which ended Wednesday -- just hours before his conviction in the corruption investigation -- Garzon testified that he searched but could not find any national census of how many people disappeared or their identities . So he decided to investigate because he considered those to be `` permanent crimes '' which still affect their descendants , since the remains have never been found . He said he began to see evidence that there was a `` systematic plan '' against Franco 's opponents , which he said included forced disappearances , illegal detentions and assassinations . Franco 's military uprising in 1936 triggered the three-year Spanish Civil War . The war ended when Franco 's forces defeated Republican and leftist fighters . Franco 's dictatorship continued until his death . Mass graves from the regime are still being unearthed , said Emilio Silva , from a group called Historical Memory . Various international observers attended the trial and Reed Brody of Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday , `` This is a trial that should never have been held , but which at least served to show that Garzon acted in accordance with international law , which imposes on states a duty to investigate the worst international crimes . '' `` The Supreme Court should put an end to this sorry episode for Spanish justice by acquitting judge Garzon of all the charges against him , '' Brody added . `` Investigating state killings and 'disappearances ' should never be considered a crime . '' Since his suspension in 2010 , Garzon has been working as a legal adviser outside of Spain on human rights cases and judicial issues , including in Latin America .
NEW : Judge Baltasar Garzon `` rejects '' sentence , vows to appeal . Rights groups watching 2nd case against judge , involving his probe of Franco-era abuses . Garzon had ordered wiretaps of suspects in a financial corruption case . Garzon argues that his wiretap orders were backed by state prosecutors .