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SPAIN’S PRINCESS CRISTINA and her husband went on trial today under intense global media scrutiny in a landmark corruption case that has outraged the country and sullied the monarchy’s reputation.
Cristina, a 50-year-old mother-of-four with a master’s degree from New York University, is the first Spanish royal to face criminal charges since the monarchy was reinstated following the 1975 death of dictator General Francisco Franco.
The princess and her husband, former Olympic handball medallist Inaki Urdangarin, arrived together at a makeshift courtroom in Palma on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca as photographers snapped pictures and a police helicopter flew overhead.
Following courtroom rules, they had to sit apart as judges read out the alleged crimes committed by the total of 18 suspects in the case, which alleges that Urdangarin embezzled public funds through a foundation he once chaired.
Cristina has been charged with tax evasion while her husband is accused of the more serious crimes of embezzlement, influence peddling, document falsification, money laundering, forgery, breach of official duty and tax fraud.
No ‘privilege’ for princess
Almost immediately after the trial opened, Cristina’s lawyers called for the case against her to be thrown out.
Prosecutors have always refused to press charges against her, but under Spanish law, private entities can also file criminal complaints — and that is just what anti-graft campaigners “Manos Limpias” — or “Clean Hands” — did.
Cristina’s lawyers cited Spanish jurisprudence which allows an accused to escape trial if the victim of a crime does not back the charges — and in this case the alleged victim is the state.
But Virginia Lopez Negrete, the lawyer representing “Manos Limpias”, rejected the argument.
“All citizens are equal before the law and as a result anachronistic doctrines cannot be applied” that would “privilege” the princess, she said.
Journalists from around the world have flocked to cover the trial, which was moved from a courthouse to a public administration school on the outskirts of Palma to accomodate the large number of reporters and lawyers.
It comes as Spain seethes over repeated corruption scandals that have exposed politicians, trade unions, bankers and footballers, eroding Spaniards’ faith in their institutions and elites after a major economic crisis and a government austerity drive.
Business dealings
The case is centred on business dealings by the Noos Institute, a charitable organisation based in Palma which Urdangarin founded and chaired from 2004 to 2006.
The 47-year-old and his former business partner Diego Torres are suspected of embezzling €6.2 million in public funds paid by two regional governments to the organisation to stage sporting and other types of events.
Urdangarin is accused of using his royal connections to secure inflated contracts without competing bids and siphoning off some of the money into Aizoon, a firm he jointly ran with his wife Cristina to fund a lavish lifestyle.
The couple are suspected of using Aizoon for personal expenses including work on the couple’s mansion in Barcelona, dance lessons and even Harry Potter books, which reduced the firm’s taxable profits, according to court filings.
If convicted Cristina — who has denied knowledge of her husband’s activities — faces a jail term of up to eight years. Urdangarin faces more than 19 years in prison.
Did royal palace ‘cooperate’?
The corruption scandal and health woes prompted Cristina’s father Juan Carlos to abdicate in 2014 in favour of his son Felipe to try to revive the scandal-hit monarchy.
King Felipe VI swiftly ordered palace accounts to be subject to an external audit and promised an honest and transparent monarchy.
Torres, Urdangarin’s former business partner, has insisted that Juan Carlos and his advisers knew and approved of his son-in-law’s business dealings at the Noos Institute and has hundreds of emails that can prove it.
“The royal palace was informed, supervised, and at times even cooperated,” he said during an interview broadcast on private television La Sexta on Sunday.
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It’s wanted for the asylum seekers……more profit in it
@Metaljester: precisely, They don’t want to be called out again by the EU.
This country is turning into a very sinister place.
Beyond disgusting
@Stoic Savage: This is a ridiculous statement and absolutely not true.
@Mary Frances Masterson: how so?
@Mary Frances Masterson: explain
@Tom Newell: fair deal means the government and not the person or their family are paying for their upkeep. Fair deal only kicks in when the person dies and a small percentage of their assets are recouped to repay what is spent. ( that’s it in it’s most simplistic form) Nursing homes in the main are private businesses, they can choose to engage or not with fair deal, some do others don’t. Anyone who goes the fair deal route knows what is involved. This is not the government’s fault, it’s big business.
‘Be quiet, everything’s fine. Can’t you pretend? Pretend!’ …But it’s not fine. It’s not even ok. Quite the opposite in fact.
smells like another building owner wanting some of that free and easy housing for immigrants and refugees money thats flowing around like sludge out of the dail on a good day
@Tom Newell: Seem the issue is with State funding private nursing homes. According to Nursing Homes Ireland, ‘Under the Fair Deal Scheme, HSE nursing homes are paid 60% more (on average) than private and voluntary nursing homes.’
@John Kieran G.: You are correct John. There is a problem with state funding nursing homes for elderly Irish people. There seems to be no problem whatsoever with funding refugee centres. Do you see where I am going with this?
@David Corrigan: No. Except that instead of supporting families and indeed people without family, you’re using an article on senior citizen care to have a go at people with nothing.
@Fiona Fitzgerald: I’m not having a go at anyone. Where did you get that idea?
FFG have no regard for Irish citizens who have worked and paid tax all their lives . This is how they are treated.
You can judge a country by the way they look after their elderly citizens. Disgraceful .
I wonder will they be offered tents
Turfing out the people they were telling us we’d kill a couple of years ago if we left our house.. You couldn’t make this up
@Stoic Savage: I don’t remember that … that we’d kill people if we left our houses?!
@John Kieran G.: we were basically told stay within 2km, stay 6m apart, dont go out unless its absolutely necessary cos we were protecting the elderly and vulnerable…..oh how the worm has turned since the covid days, now its everyones on the chopping block if theres money to be made
@Tom Newell: Oh yeah. Because I knew we were allowed to leave our houses in contrast to the above comment. That was us though, the public. I would still do anything similar to help the vulnerable if required. Same when/if I have ‘flu. I don’t own any Nursing or Care Homes though, so I can’t say I am demonstrating double-standards.
@Tom Newell: Not too sure whether the French-owned investment fund company that runs the home(s) influenced many of the national public health measures back then either.
‘Be quiet. Say nothing. Act normal’ – But things aren’t normal. Quite the opposite. ‘QUIET!’
Front page of the irish times today – ‘EU agrees radical reforms on migration and asylum laws’. Now is the time to exit the fascist EU run by non elected muppets and NGOs
@Yllems Yags: LOL
@Yllems Yags: As if the previous Irish government wasn’t quick enough to try grabbing people’s homes as soon as they needed help to get around. Loads of families were hounded for extra fees that they weren’t even liable for before that was finally made clear. Now with a surplus in hand, the government is neglecting senior citizens yet again. If you’re fooled into blaming “the EU”, our own TDs will carry on ripping us off.
@Reginald Viking: Mary Butler is the worst minister for the Elderly that we have had. She gives pat answers every time she is interviewed. She doesn’t seem to listen to the problems nursing homes have.
@Mary Frances Masterson: That’s because she is powerless to do anything about it. Ministers without influence should not be in place. There is no need to pay huge salaries to people who can’t influence change.
@Mary Frances Masterson: I agree with you on Mary Butler but there is a bigger issue here. In the article it says, “They are being paid E738 less per patient per week” How much are they been paid and how much do they want? Either way it sounds like extortion by big business and their shareholders It is ironic that people are more prepared to criticise Govt and ignore the extortion bit when it suits them.
The problem appears to be with state funding of private nursing homes. According to Nursing Homes Ireland, ‘Under the Fair Deal Scheme, HSE nursing homes are paid 60% more (on average) than private and voluntary nursing homes.’
In any case, the situation is not the fault of asylum seekers and should not be held against them.
@Brendan O’Brien: People who tear up their passports are not asylum seekers.
@Concened Irish Mother: People who seek asylum are asylum seekers by definition.
Anyone with an Irish Times subscription can Google “Why many seeking asylum in Ireland may be without a passport” for an article on this topic.
@Concened Irish Mother: They are though, in as much as I was definitely born whether I tear up my birth cert or not. I am married to my wife, whether I tear up my marriage cert or not.
@Brendan O’Brien: This is correct. Voluntary not for profit nursing homes are closing too because they can’t make ends meet.
@R: How so? What’s your point? You think everything should be free?
@Brendan O’Brien: And anyone who doesn’t have an Irish Times subscription, can view two NewsTalk articles – by Googling: “Over 5000 asylum seekers arrived in Ireland without valid travel documents last year” and “Almost 1,500 asylum seekers destroyed their passports before arrival at Dublin Airport so far this year.” Some excerpts include: “Between January and April this year 1,465 asylum seekers destroyed or lost their passport before their flight arrived at Dublin Airport.” … and … “The Department of Justice figures show that between January and November 2022, a total of 5,074 people applying for asylum in Ireland presented either “false or no documentation” on their arrival.” … and … “Asylum seekers speaking to the show said they pay large sums of money for fake documents and transport to travel to Ireland. One man said that Ireland is seen as a soft touch internationally.” … and … “It means almost 40% of the people applying for international protection here last year did not have valid travel documents.” … and finally … “Meanwhile an asylum seeker from Tunisia has told us how he paid a people smuggler to be taken in a shipping container to get from Belgium to Belfast so he could then claim international protection in Dublin.”
@John Smith: Further… the man who said that “Ireland is seen as a soft touch internatiionally”, went on to add: “After corona came, everything is changed you know?” he said. “When corona gone, the people start hearing about Ireland. That, in Ireland, they give people the asylum, the papers and they give them the work permit – everybody comes to Ireland. Asked whether people are coming here because they know they will get their papers easier, he said: “This is reason. This is the only reason. Trust me.”
@John Smith: You place an awful lot of trust on one anonymous informant when he says exactly what you want to hear.
Do you believe asylum seekers, and listen to their experiences, in general, or just this one individual?
@John Smith: And Ireland has small numbers of asylum seekers by international standards.
@Brendan O’Brien: You mean… exactly what you DON’T want to hear? Let us (YOU) not gloss over the Department of Justices’ own figures – which show that “between January and November 2022, a total of 5,074 people applying for asylum in Ireland presented either “false or no documentation” on their arrival.”
@John Smith: Desperate people will do whatever they have to do. The Irish ought to know that
@Brendan O’Brien: The ‘Irish ought to know’ nothing Brendan. Men, women and children – fleeing *actual* war and *actual* famine – are absolutely and wholeheartedly welcome in Ireland – we’ll fit them in, with a heart and a half, a cup of tea – and a biscuit. Thousands of unidentifiable young men, from ‘safe’ countries – tearing up their passports – or paying criminals for false passports, or paying people-smugglers HUGE sums of money to be transported into Ireland illegally? Eh… yeah – that’s… not a ‘heart and a half’ type scenario Brendan – there should be no tea, and no biscuits. ‘Yes’ to compassion – but ‘no’ to absolute INSANITY.
@John Smith: Asylum seekers can make the case that they are fleeing persecution, and the system can decide. Apart from the Ukraine crisis, the numbers involved are not large, and are minuscule compared to some other countries.
@Brendan O’Brien: Yeah… and apart from the four cups of coffee I’ve had this morning, I haven’t had a single cup of coffee.
@John Smith: So you’re saying that you don’t want Ukrainians coming here, even though they are clearly ‘fleeing *actual* war’?
@Brendan O’Brien: I think I made myself abundantly clear above Brendan.
Wasting your time appealing to Micheal Martin. Or Leo Varadkar, Simon Harris, Roderic O’Gorman & Co. They don’t care about you. They pretend to, but they don’t. They don’t relate to normal people with normal lives. They’re better than us you see. That’s why it’s in our best interest to flood the country with uncivilised cultures and beliefs. To throw our elderly out of nursing homes. To tax us to the boll!x and control our freedom of speech. To decimate the agri industry and make us less food secure. Know your places peasants!
Leo step in you must be joking. These poor people are not elite enough to warrant his attention. Leo looks after Leo.
Euthanasia is on the cards and who will be the main targets for disposal – the elderly, very convenient wouldn’t you say. Think how much money money the government will save, and a smaller elderly population means the empty nursing homes can be used to house fakeugees.
@Concened Irish Mother: Online dictionaries are free. Try learning a bit of a language yourself.
Stop funding the NGO’s, and stop funding the border invaders. This is another colonization tactic. Ireland is being colonized and conquered by Africa and Asia via border invaders (asylum seekers, refugees, illegal immigrants, migrants, et cetera), which is really a race war/Holy War by the 3rd world against 1st world European Caucasian Christians. Mossad is the ringleader of such, for the New World Order. The invasion by the border invaders is falsely disguised as a “humanitarian crisis”. The government of Ireland encourages and helps the border invaders by giving them lots of free money and free benefits (free hotels, free food, free medical, free money, free housing, free transportation, free education, free phones, et cetera). Even the slaughter of the 200k cows is a colonizing tactic to make Ireland dependent upon Africa and Asia for food.
Your daily reminder the state hates you. Disgusting regime.
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