Spain’s Princess Cristina and her husband went on trial yesterday 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.
Almost immediately after the trial opened, Cristina’s lawyers called for the case against her to be thrown out.
Public 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.
Lopez added that dropping the case against Cristina would harm Spain’s justice system.
Journalists from around the world have flocked to cover the high-security trial, which was moved from a courthouse to a public administration school on the outskirts of Palma to accommodate 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.
“We have never had as much corruption in Spain’s democratic history,” said 45-year-old unemployed masseur Francisco Solana, one of a handful of protesters who gathered outside the courtroom.
“No judge will dare send Princess Cristina to jail. I think justice is not equal for all, it favours the rich,” added Solana who was wrapped in the yellow, red and purple flag of Spain’s 1931-1939 second republic.
The corruption 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 6.2mn euros ($6.7mn) in public funds paid by two regional governments to the organisation to stage sporting and other 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.
The corruption scandal and his own 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.
Last year, he also stripped Cristina and her husband of their titles of Duchess and Duke of Palma.
Cristina remains sixth in line to the throne however, a right only she can relinquish.
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 and has hundreds of e-mails 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.