British justice protects King Juan Carlos “a little” from a lawsuit for harassment of his ex-lover

The British justice granted Tuesday to King Emeritus Juan Carlos legal immunity until his abdication in 2014, which the father of Spain’s current monarch claimed by seeking to mitigate a harassment lawsuit filed by his former lover in London.

Three judges of the London Court of Appeal ruled that the “alleged conduct prior to the abdication is immune from jurisdiction of the courts of this country”.

The 84-year-old former monarch had argued since 2021 that he could not be tried in England under the 1978 British State Immunity Act.

However, a High Court judge denied it in March arguing this no longer a member of the royal house and that even before his resignation, the “acts of harassment” accused by the German-Danish businesswoman Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, 57, with whom had an extramarital affair between 2004 and 2009, they did not benefit from this protection.

The Court of Appeal later agreed to review the matter, but only while he was head of state.

Since the king emeritus was not entitled to claim inviolability after his abdication, the harassment lawsuit, paralyzed by this appeal, could continue date to be defined.

However, his lawyers “also reserved the right to contest jurisdiction on other grounds” relating to charges filed after 2014, the judges acknowledged in their written decision.

“If Juan Carlos supports these arguments, we hope that the High Court will reject them and ask him to present his formal defense”, reacted the representatives of the businesswoman, admitting their “disappointment” with this decision but emphasizing that “most part of Corinna’s requests refers to harassment alleged to have occurred after the abdication“.

Contacted by AFP, Juan Carlos’ lawyers did not react.

Appointed head of state in 1975 upon the death of dictator Francisco Franco, Juan Carlos I it has been respected for decades for allowing the return of democracy to Spain.

But a series of scandals from 2012 they demolished his imageleading him first to abdicate in favor of his son, Felipe VI, and in August 2020, to go into exile in the United Arab Emirates, where he has lived since then.

The harassment lawsuit

Denouncing eight years of threats, intrusions, tracking, hacking and defamationthe businesswoman –divorced from a German prince and also known by her maiden name Larsen– filed in 2020 a civil case against him for harassment in Londonwhere she resides.

She assures that Juan Carlos has been harassing her since 2012 trying to recover “gifts” comprising 65 million euros ($68 million).

He requests compensation for the psychic damage and removal measures. No risk of prison or extradition to the king emeritus, who denies the allegations.

But the former king’s lawyer, Tim Otty, argued in November that immunity “is a procedural hurdle, has absolutely no regard for the legality or morality of the alleged conduct”.

Larsen’s lawyers have defended for their part that by requesting the services of General Félix Sanz Roldán, then Director of the National Intelligence Center (CNI) who, according to her, threatened her and sent agents to harass her, Juan Carlos did it as a personal favor among friends and not as head of state, resorting to the chief of espionage.

To underline this “private” behavior, they recently rectified their statement, removing any reference to the Spanish secret services, which the judges of the Court of Appeal censured on Tuesday, holding that “any change request (…) must be supported from evidence for its merits”.

In court documents filed in November, Larsen assured that although Juan Carlos had given him the 65 million claiming “an affection for her and his children that he could not reflect in his will”, his intention was actually hide them from the Spanish taxusing her as a figurehead.

And he claims the alleged harassment began in 2012, when attempts were made to access said money.

The lawsuit in London has been overshadowed by the recent release of a controversial podcast titled “Corinna and the King”.

The author is an AFP journalist

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