Spain’s ex-king Juan Carlos faces London trial after immunity claim loss

A high-profile lawsuit towards ex-King Juan Carlos of Spain can go forward within the English courts, a choose dominated on Thursday after he rejected claims that state immunity ought to forestall the royal being sued in London.

The previous king, who abdicated in favour of his son King Felipe VI in 2014, is being sued in London’s Excessive Court docket by his ex-lover Corinna Zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, who has accused Juan Carlos and the Spanish secret service of harassment and placing her beneath unlawful surveillance within the UK since 2012.

Juan Carlos, who retired from public life in 2019 and now lives in Abu Dhabi, has not but filed a defence to the lawsuit, however strongly denies what he describes as “unsubstantiated allegations”.

Legal professionals for the previous monarch had challenged the jurisdiction of the English courts to strive the case at a Excessive Court docket listening to in December 2021. They claimed he was personally immune from the jurisdiction of the English courts beneath the State Immunity Act 1978 on account of him being a “sovereign”, or a member of the family of King Felipe VI. His attorneys additionally claimed that Juan Carlos is topic solely to the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court docket of Spain.

Nevertheless Mr Justice Matthew Nicklin dominated that not one of the grounds on which state immunity was claimed had been made out. “The declare will due to this fact proceed,” he stated.

He added that arguments put ahead by the previous monarch’s attorneys would have meant that if Juan Carlos “have been to stroll right into a jewellers’ store in Hatton Backyard and steal a diamond ring, he may face no civil or prison proceedings on this jurisdiction” — a conclusion he discovered at odds with the rules of worldwide regulation.

The Excessive Court docket ruling — and the prospect of a full listening to in London — is a reverse for the previous king, who this month appeared to place his authorized issues in Spain behind him when prosecutors dropped a prison probe into alleged tax offences after he paid greater than €5mn in again taxes in 2020 and 2021.

In contrast with the UK proceedings, Juan Carlos’s immunity from prosecution as Spanish head of state till his 2014 abdication appeared to play a big function in these investigations.

A associated Swiss probe was additionally dropped in December. That had appeared into whether or not a $100mn reward to Juan Carlos in 2008 by the late King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia was an unlawful fee associated to a subsequent contract for Spanish firms to construct a high-speed practice hyperlink between the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. The Swiss prosecutor didn’t discover a enough connection between the reward and the contract.

In her declare, filed at London’s Excessive Court docket, Sayn-Wittgenstein accused the previous monarch of harassment “from 2012 till the current time”, together with threats and defamation, and “illegal covert and overt surveillance” by brokers of the previous king and the Spanish intelligence service. She is searching for substantial damages and a restraining order.

On the coronary heart of the case is a cost of €65mn in 2012 by Juan Carlos to Sayn-Wittgenstein, utilizing funds that originated with the $100mn reward to the then Spanish king from King Abdullah.

In her declare, Sayn-Wittgenstein says Juan Carlos subsequently requested for the cash again “or made out there for his use”. She alleges that, after she declined, he falsely accused her of stealing the funds and defamed her to her household and enterprise companions, in addition to to King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. She alleges this resulted in a lack of earnings from her job as a strategic advisor.

Robin Rathmell of Kobre & Kim, authorized counsel to Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, welcomed Thursday’s ruling. “Juan Carlos de Borbón y Borbón will now be answerable to an English courtroom for his actions as a non-public particular person,” he stated.

Clifford Likelihood, the regulation agency which represented Juan Carlos, stated the ex-king and his advisers have been reviewing the ruling and whether or not to attraction.