The Court of Appeal of London granted permission to the emeritus king of Spain on Monday to appeal the judicial decision that in March denied him immunity in Englandin the framework of a lawsuit for harassment filed by her ex-lover.
(Read: The Spanish Treasury investigates King Juan Carlos I for hunting in Africa)
Judges Peter Jackson and Nicholas Underhill, of the London Court of Appeal, ruled out that Juan Carlos, 84, continues to be part of the Spanish Royal House after his abdication in 2014 for the benefit of his son, Felipe VI.
(He is interested in: The return of the emeritus king makes the Spanish Crown uncomfortable)
However, they considered that he may seek immunity for actions carried out before that moment, determining whether he carried them out in a “public capacity” or a “private capacity.”
Lawyers for the emeritus king of Spain asked the British Court of Appeal on Monday in a hearing before Judges Jackson and Underhill, vice president of the civil division of the court of appeal, the right to appeal the sentence handed down in March.
This court considered that Juan Carlos I does not have personal immunity because he is not a head of state or a member of the Royal House.
But a lawyer for the king emeritus defended on Monday that “the meaning of Casa depends on the extent of the close ties and special circumstances” that bind its members.
And that Spanish law defines the royal family as “a closed group of six individuals”, formed by Felipe VI and his wife Letizia, their two daughters and the parents of the current monarch.
He also argued that judging Juan Carlos “would inevitably impact the fulfillment of the functions of the current sovereign” because the attention of such a process would have an “impact on the dignity” of King Felipe VI.
And he assured that this would be equivalent to the impact that it would have had on the dignity of Queen Elizabeth II to publish the will of her late husband, Prince Philip, which British justice blocked after his death in 2021 to protect the monarch, he argued.
Grant or not permission
Judge Nicklin had also considered that, even in the case of actions carried out before the abdication of Juan Carlos I, the acts of “harassment” attributed to him by his ex-lover -Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, a 58-year-old Danish businesswoman- ” do not fall within the sphere of governmental or sovereign activity” for which he would have immunity under English law.
Away from public life and stripped after his abdication of the legal protection he had enjoyed in Spain since he was appointed head of state in 1975, Juan Carlos, 84, went into exile in August 2020 to the United Arab Emirates.
The English court requires that, before a court decision can be appealed to a higher court, it must consider whether the claim is relevant. Otherwise you can refuse to parse it.
By authorizing the appeal on immunity, Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein’s claim for harassment is paralyzed until its resolution.
Present on Monday in the Court of Appeal, the ex-lover of the king emeritus, based in the United Kingdom, unsuccessfully presented arguments against Juan Carlos’s permission to appeal.
Divorced from a German prince and also known by her maiden name, Corinna Larsen was Juan Carlos’ lover between 2004 and 2009.
But she denounces that, after their breakup, from 2012 she was spied on and harassed by orders of the former head of state to return gifts that include works of art, jewelry and financial gifts worth 65 million euros (73 million dollars). .
Juan Carlos denies these accusations “in the strongest terms.”
AFP
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