Case involving Joan Carles I shelved
Prosecutor says no case to answer related to statements by former king’s lover and supposed commissions
The office of the Anti-corruption prosecutor does recognise a prima facie case in the information revealed by Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, an “intimate” friend of emeritus King Joan Carles I, in the interview between the German aristocrat and retired police commissioner José Villarejo.
The public prosecutor considers that the revelations about the activities of the former king are insufficient to open criminal investigations. The prosecutor has asked the judge in question to ignore the declarations made by “Carol” which had been include in the summary of the so-called Tandem investigation into the former police commissioner.
The recordings had been leaked to the press and published by the online news services Eldiario.es and Okdiario this summer. Yesterday, the El Pais newspaper said that judge will most probably exclude present king’s father from the case. The prosecutor’s office stipulates that if there was a case to answer regarding supposed commissions in the contracting of the AVE in Mecca, at that time as Head of State, his position would have been inviolable.
In the conversations between the German aristocrat and Villarejo, there was also mention made of property dealings in Morocco and secret bank accounts in Switzerland. The prosecutor however, claims that the information contained in the tapes is not precise enough as evidence of wrongdoing and although the claims made could warrant a criminal investigation, the report says that “there is no element that allows us to assume that there exists an illegal or unlawful activity.” As a resident in Morocco, Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein claims that money was laundered using accounts held by relatives.