Google – AFP, 4 November 2013
 |
Spanish
royal Inaki Urdangarin has been asked to cover a 6.1-million-euro
($8.2
million) bond in a corruption scandal (AFP/File, Josep Lago)
|
Madrid — A
court on Monday impounded a luxury villa and other properties of Spanish King
Juan Carlos's son-in-law in a corruption case that has plunged the royal family
into crisis.
Separately,
the royal place set a date for the king's new hip replacement, the latest in a
string of operations that have sparked debate about the future of his reign.
The court
in Mallorca ordered the seizure of properties owned by Inaki Urdangarin, husband
of the king's daughter Cristina, to cover a 6.1 million euro ($8.2 million)
bond for his liability in the case, it said in a written ruling.
 |
A file
picture taken on May 12, 2012 shows
Spain's Duke of Palma Inaki Urdangarin and
his Princess Crsitina leaving San Prudencio
church in Vitoria (AFP/File, Rafa
Rivas)
|
The court
is investigating accusations that Urdangarin, an ex-Olympic handball champion,
and his former business partner Diego Torres embezzled six million euros in
public funds.
The money
was allegedly placed in the non-profit Noos Institute, which Urdangarin chaired
from 2004 to 2006 and of which Cristina was a board member, for it to organise
sports events.
In a separate
case, the judge investigating the allegations, Jose Castro, has also ordered
the tax office to examine Cristina's financial affairs.
The three
deny any wrongdoing and have not been formally charged with any crime.
The scandal
has nevertheless plunged Juan Carlos's family into its worst popularity crisis
in his nearly four-decade reign, sharpening scrutiny of the royals as Spain
suffers from five years of economic turmoil.
The list of
homes, garages and other buildings detailed in Monday's ruling included
Urdangarin's share of a luxury villa in Barcelona which he owns with Cristina.
It also
included properties of companies owned by the couple and Torres and was aimed
at covering the court bond imposed on both men.
The palace
has excluded Urdangarin from its official functions since the judicial
investigation was launched in late 2011.
Juan Carlos
won respect for his role in Spain's transition to democracy after the death of
the dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.
But the
Noos scandal has since combined with his health problems, and discontent among
recession-hit Spaniards over the royals' lifestyle, to raise debate about the
king's future.
Ninth
operation in three years
The king
himself sparked outrage last year for taking an expensive elephant-hunting holiday
in Botswana, while Spain struggled through a recession with one in
four workers out of a job.
He broke
his right hip during the trip and had to be flown home for surgery. Afterwards,
he issued an unprecedented public apology for the hunting trip -- seen as a
sign of changing times for Spain's constitutional monarchy.
 |
Spanish
King Juan Carlos leaves San Jose
hospital in Madrid on April 18, 2012 where
he
was hospitalised after breaking his hip on
an African elephant hunting trip
(Pool/AFP/
File, Paco Campos)
|
That affair
also drew attention to the king's friendship with Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein,
a blonde German aristocrat who is 28 years his junior, after it emerged that
she accompanied him on the trip to Botswana.
He later
had his left hip replaced too, but that joint became infected, sending him back
to the surgery this year.
Doctors
fitted him with a temporary prosthesis in September and a royal palace
spokesman said on Monday that they will next implant a permanent one on
November 21.
It will be
the king's ninth operation in just over three years.
With Juan
Carlos appearing in public on crutches and looking frail over recent months,
speculation has grown that he may abdicate in favour of his son Felipe, 45,
despite the palace's denials.
Felipe took
his father's place at a national day parade on October 12 for the first time
and also replaced him at the annual Ibero-American summit in Panama last month.
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