Kasia Gallanio, a former Qatari princess, was found dead Sunday at her home in Marbella, Spain. The news was reported by the Efe news agency, confirming advances from the French newspaper Le Parisien.
The woman, 45, was the ex-wife of Abdelaziz bin Khalifa Al-Thani, uncle of the Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and former Minister of Oil and Finance. According to reports from El Mundo, the alert was given to the police by one of her daughters, a minor, who called the Spanish police from Paris after failing to contact her mother for days.
According to the Spanish media, the investigative hypothesis is that an overdose is at the basis of the death, but the details of the autopsy have not yet been made public. Gallanio, who had a dual nationality (Polish and American), had waged a long legal battle with her ex-husband after the divorce for the custody of her three minor daughters. One of her daughters had reported her father for harassment that would have occurred when the girl was between 9 and 15 years old.
Gallanio’s complaints would have been filed by a Parisian court a few days ago, pending his psychological evaluation. The former princess would have spent several months hospitalized last year and – according to Le Parisien – she had in the past undertaken detoxification courses several times.
Police sources quoted by El Mundo said officers arriving at the woman’s Marbella home found her lifeless in bed, with no apparent signs of violence. “My client,” said her lawyer, Sabrina Boesch, “she was devastated after the Paris court decision. I believe that, more than anything else, it was her pain that killed her. “
Two of Gallanio’s daughters are 17 years old; the third – who reported being molested – 15. The woman’s ex-husband is 73 years old, and second The Parisian he hasn’t talked to his daughters for some time.