Every time the ex-king Juan Carlos look towards Spain In order to return, some fact is known that forces him to postpone his wishes. Although there was much speculation about a possible visit in the Christmas and New Year holidays, prudence prevails before the advances of the law and the discoveries of his friends in Abu Dhabi.
(Read here: Swiss Prosecutor closes corruption case against King Emeritus Juan Carlos)
And it is that the emeritus king, who turns 84 on January 5, is back on target because the Spanish Prosecutor’s Office has just reported that it is postponing the open investigations for another six months. Although the safest thing is that he will free himself from a conviction for having enjoyed immunity and for having advanced millionaire regularizations before the Treasury, the truth is that the causes are still open and society continues to blame him. This is not a good time to look out over your country.
Besides, his steps in Abu Dhabi do not help him. The press reported that it is seen with Abdul Rahman El Assir, a Spanish-Lebanese arms merchant who is in international search and capture because he did not appear in a trial in Spain for tax fraud of almost 15 million euros. It is a friendship from thirty years ago, which has been revived now that they both live in the same place.
His proximity does not pave the way for him to return. Opinions in Spain are divided. For some, such as the Minister of Social Rights Ione Belarra (from Podemos, a left-wing party), the emeritus king “would only have to return to Spain to render accounts before the Justice and the public for the corruption scandals and their illicit businesses.”
(Also: King Juan Carlos I claims immunity in England from accusation of harassment)
Furthermore, he believes that Spain should adopt a democratic system “that avoids what has been seen in recent years: the monarchy turned into the best mechanism for corruption.” Others think the opposite, such as former president Felipe González, for whom “the logical thing is for him to come and be here.”
Faced with rumors of a possible visit, the president Pedro Sanchez He assured that the Royal Household has not consulted the Government in this regard and that it continues “to believe that King Juan Carlos has to give explanations.” The possible trip of the ex-monarch, they have clarified from Moncloa, is a question that his son Felipe VI must resolve. The Government, in parallel, is carrying out a campaign to show that the current king behaves very differently from that of his father, in an effort to preserve the monarchy unscathed.
Juan Carlos I left Spain on August 3, 2020 and, moments later, a letter addressed to his son was released in which he clarified that he was leaving “due to the public repercussions that certain past events are generating” of his “private life” . After days of mysterious institutional silence about his whereabouts, it was revealed that he had gone into self-exile in Abu Dhabi. There he has lived since then and it is no secret to anyone that he feels great desire to return to Spain.
The real tsunami
He would only have to return to Spain to render accounts before the Justice and the citizens for the corruption scandals and his illicit businesses
The “past events” you refer to are related to your ex-lover Corinna larsen and the opaque handling of money on several fronts.
The relationship between the two of them was publicly known when in 2012 Juan Carlos I suffered a fall during an elephant hunt in Botswana, which caused a broken hip for which he had to undergo surgery in Spain, where he was taken urgently. He was traveling with his lover and her son. The scandal, which was added to the judicial process of his son-in-law —Iñaki Urdangarin— for crimes of corruption, had repercussions to the point that he abdicated his son Felipe in 2014.
And everything got complicated when the suspicions of the existence of undeclared monies before the Spanish treasury began. José Manuel Villarejo, a former commissioner now detained for various crimes, secretly recorded some conversations in 2015 and 2016 with Larsen, in which she claimed that every time Juan Carlos I traveled to the Middle East, he returned with cash.
This led to the Swiss Prosecutor’s Office opening an investigation in 2018. The first prosecutor Yves Bertossa studied the millionaire donations related to a possible payment of commissions for the intervention of the then king in the concession of the works of the railway from Medina to Mecca to a group of Spanish businessmen.
(You may be interested: Juan Carlos I assures that he suffered ‘a lot of pressure’ to leave Spain)
The former monarch received one hundred million dollars (65 million euros) as an alleged gift from the King of Saudi Arabia in an account of the Swiss bank Miarabaud in the name of the Panamanian entity Lucum, whose main beneficiary was him. Later, most of that money was transferred to a Larsen account at a bank in the Bahamas. According to Corina, it is a gift from Juan Carlos I to her and her son.
In March 2020, in a public address, King Felipe VI renounced his father’s inheritance and withdrew the annual allowance set in the Royal Household budgets (almost 200 thousand euros) upon learning that he was a beneficiary of the Zagatka foundations. and Lucum. In this way he separated himself from his father’s business abroad.
In December 2021, after more than three years of work, the Swiss Public Prosecutor’s Office closed the investigations. In the middle of last month, the prosecutor Bertossa announced that he was closing the investigation, focused on money laundering, for lacking the evidence to confirm that the 65 million euros in the sights had an illegal origin.
Although it was a relief for Juan Carlos I, this is not his only problem or the only ongoing investigation into his money management.
Other ongoing investigations against the ex-monarch
Upon learning of the existence of this possible illegal commission payment or donation from the Saudi Arabian monarchy to King Juan Carlos – this is what needs to be determined – the Spanish Prosecutor’s Office also opened an investigation in this regard in June 2020. Although it is expected that close the diligence without conviction, it has just announced, before the near expiration, the extension for six more months pending that the National Office for Investigation of Fraud examines documentation received from Switzerland.
The same is true of another ongoing investigation against the ex-monarch: his use of money from the Mexican businessman Allen Sanginés-Krause. Although it is expected that time does not run out, the Prosecutor’s Office now has until June to pronounce itself.
There is an additional case in which the ex-king is involved and it focuses on the possession of companies in tax havens, something that his lawyers flatly deny.
It is expected that none of the investigations will end in a conviction for the ex-monarch, since, on the one hand, he was protected by constitutional immunity until his abdication in 2014, and, on the other, he presented two regulations before the Spanish treasury. One took place in December 2020 for 678,393 euros, and another in February 2021, for 4.4 million euros.
(Also: Conrinna Larsen: from lover to enemy of King Juan Carlos I of Spain)
Harassment lawsuit
Although the closure of these investigations means a relief for the ex-monarch, his story with Justice does not end there. A lawsuit by Larsen for harassment is still pending before a high court in London, where he resides.
She aspires to a juicy compensation – whose figures she has not clarified – and asks that she stay at least 150 meters away. He accuses him of the illegal “open and covert monitoring” promoted by the National Intelligence Center of Spain (CNI).
What Larsen wants to show is that he has been the victim of this harassment to prevent him from bringing to light documents that could “incriminate” the ex-king in shady matters.
The truth is that now the antennas of Juan Carlos I must go to the English capital, where judge Matthew Nicklin must decide soon if he retains his immunity.
(Read here: Corinna Larsen sues King Juan Carlos I for ‘illegal surveillance’)
Tell me who you are with…
Regardless of the problems with the law, the news that is known about the ex-king’s companies in Abu Dhabi does not help to improve his image. According to the newspaper El País, he is seen with Abdul Rahman El Assir, a Spanish-Lebanese arms merchant who is in an international search and capture for not having appeared in a trial for defrauding 14.7 million euros from the Spanish treasury.
El Assir is now in Abu Dhabi and frequently visits Juan Carlos I in the hotel complex where he has lived since he left Spain.
Although it had grown cold, the friendship between the two of them dates back to the eighties. They have mutual friends and both are fond of hunting. In fact, the Spanish-Lebanese was one of the guests at the marriage of Felipe VI and Letizia Ortiz in 2004.
On October 4, 2018, he had an appointment at the Madrid Provincial Court, where he was to be tried for tax fraud, but he did not appear because he was supposedly ill. The trial was postponed three more times and he never appeared. The court issued an international search and arrest warrant and imprisonment. The Prosecutor’s Office asks for a sentence of eight years in prison and the payment of almost 90 million euros for having omitted millionaire profits.
El País reports that a spokesperson for La Zarzuela assures that the private activities of Juan Carlos I no longer depend on the Casa del Rey.
The attempt to establish distance between the emeritus and his son is evident. The recent acts of Juan Carlos I dirty the monarchy that he himself rescued and consolidated after the death of the dictator Francisco Franco in Spain. Now, however, he elbows what he wrote with his hand.
JUANITA SAMPER OSPINA
EL TIEMPO correspondent
MADRID
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