the king emeritus Juan Carlos She is claiming legal immunity in England on Tuesday until her abdication in 2014, seeking to mitigate a harassment lawsuit brought by her ex-lover, in a case clouded by the publication of a controversial podcast about their romance.
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Three judges of the London Court of Appeal listen throughout the day to the lawyers of the 84-year-old former Spanish monarch and the German-Danish businesswoman Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein58, with whom he had a relationship between 2004 and 2009.
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The magistrates will not rule, however, for several weeks.
Denouncing eight years of threats, intrusions, tracking, hacking and defamation, the businesswoman — divorced from a German prince and also known by her maiden name Larsen — filed a civil lawsuit in 2020 for harassment in London, where she lives.
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She assures that Juan Carlos harassed her since 2012 looking for recover “gifts” that include 65 million euros (a similar dollar amount). He claims compensation for psychological damage and restraining measures. There is no risk of jail or extradition to the father of the current King Felipe VI.
‘Legality or morality’
Juan Carlos, who lives in exile in the United Arab Emirates, denies the accusations. Neither of them appeared at Tuesday’s hearing.
The emeritus king’s legal team has been defending since 2021 that he cannot be tried in England under the British State Immunity Act of 1978. In March, a London High Court judge denied him such immunity, arguing that after his abdication in 2014 he ceased to be a member of the royal house, and even before his alleged “acts of harassment” would not benefit from such protection.
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But the Court of Appeal agreed to reexamine the issue, though only while he was head of state and if he acted as such.
“Immunity is a procedural obstacle, it does not take into account at all the legality or the morality of the conduct in question,” defended the ex-king’s lawyer, Tim Otty, on Tuesday. “The conduct continues to be imputable to the State even if the State agent acts with abuse of power,” he added.
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Immunity is a procedural obstacle, it does not take into account at all the legality or morality of the conduct in question.
The judges will have to decide, among other things, whether by asking General Félix Sanz Roldán –director of the National Intelligence Center (CNI)– to visit Sayn-Wittgenstein in London in 2012, when she claims he threatened her, Juan Carlos he did it as head of state resorting to the head of Spanish espionage, or as a private favor between friends.
Recently, Sayn-Wittgenstein’s lawyers modified their lawsuit, eliminating any reference to the CNI to imply that both acted privately.
Still, Larsen’s attorney, James Lewis, insisted Tuesday that immunity only applies to acts done “in the performance of official duties” and “not for the pleasure or self-interest” of the head of state. And he stressed that the King of Spain has no control or authority over the CNI’s operations.
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controversial podcast
The case was clouded by Monday’s release of two episodes of a podcast titled “Corinna and the King”whose following installments will appear weekly until mid-December.
In it, London journalists Bradley Hope and Tom Wright recount the real romance with Larsen and others interviewed and they assure that by collapsing “it opened the window to a dangerous world full of greed, corruption and crime”.
An advance to the press last week caused controversy in Spain due to the temporary coincidence with the case in London.
In court documents filed on Tuesday, the businesswoman’s lawyers say that although Juan Carlos gave the 65 million to his lover alleging “an affection for her and her children that he could not reflect in his will, his motives were more sinister.”
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“Due to changes in Swiss banking practices” that required the monarch to declare said funds, he “considered that he could hide them as a gift to the plaintiff but compelled her to let him use them,” they say. And they allege that the alleged harassment began in 2012 seeking to control said money.
Paralyzed until the appeal on immunity is resolved, the lawsuit for harassment should continue later, since the king emeritus was not authorized to claim inviolability after his abdication.
Appointed head of state in 1975, Juan Carlos I was highly respected for decades for having allowed the return of democracy to Spain after the Franco dictatorship. But a multiplication of scandals from 2012, including his relationship with Corinna Larsen, brought down his image.
AFP
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