The former king of Spain, Juan Carlos, was sued by his former lover, Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, at the High Court in London. The former monarch would have illegally placed her under surveillance in Great Britain with the help of the Spanish secret services. The complaint, writes the Financial Times, was filed last December, but only made public on Monday 26 July. According to the court, the woman accuses Juan Carlos of harassment “from 2012 until today”. Harassment even carried out with “threats and defamations” and with “illegal” surveillance that was carried out “both undercover and openly” by some agents employed by the former monarch and Hispanic intelligence. Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein asks for material damage and a restraining order: she wants to prevent Juan Carlos and his agents from “getting in touch with her, hoarding her, making defamatory statements and harassing her, keeping at least 150 meters from her residences” .
The judicial confrontation
Juan Carlos, who abdicated in 2014, rejects the accusations, reports the British newspaper, “although his legal team has not filed a defense brief”. A judicial battle is expected, as the former monarch not only does not live in the UK, but was the head of state of another nation. At the heart of the battle an intrigue whose constituent elements are immense sums of money and gifts to be returned. In 2012, Juan Carlos would have paid Sayn-Wittgenstein 65 million euros by making use of a gift of 100 million dollars that the then Saudi king Abdullah had in turn made to the Spanish monarch in 2008. In the deed of denunciation, the Donna states that at the time Juan Carlos had told her he wanted to “secure support for her and her children” but also that he was “worried that her family would contest anything he left her in his will after his death”. Except then ask her for the money back. Upon Corinna’s refusal, the monarch accused her of stealing the funds, going so far as to defame her both in front of her own family as well as in front of her business partners, including Saudi King Salman and Prince Mohamed bin Salman. According to the woman’s complaint, this would have caused serious losses in her professional income as a “strategic consultant who collaborates with leading companies around the world“.
The accusations of the former lover
According to Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, the Spanish intelligence agency had over time placed her “under physical surveillance, which includes surveillance of vehicles and personnel, the violation of her property and the hacking of her phones and computers. “. Sayn-Wittgenstein also claims she was threatened by the former king if she “failed to do what he wanted.” Indeed, the then head of the Spanish Intelligence Agency, Felix Sanz Roldan, in a meeting in London in 2012, allegedly told her that “he cannot guarantee for his and his children’s physical safety”, an accusation totally rejected by 007. Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein became headlines thanks to a safari in Botswana in the company of the former Spanish king: on that occasion she was introduced as a member of her entourage to foreign delegates. In 2012, Corinna was chosen by Princess Charlene of Monaco as her personal advisor and image consultant.
Previous scandals involving the ex monarch
The judicial confrontation is just the latest of the scandals in which the former Spanish king is involved. Last year he left Spain for Abu Dhabi after the Spanish Supreme Court opened an investigation into a story of alleged bribes on a 7 billion high-speed train project in Saudi Arabia. This is followed by a second investigation into gifts for 800,000 euros received from a Mexican-British businessman. Last December, Juan Carlos had to pay almost 680,000 euros in back taxes to the Spanish tax authorities, to which to add another 4.4 million euros related to jet travel on behalf of the Zagatka Foundation, based in Liechtenstein and subsidiary by his distant cousin, Alvaro de Orleans-Borbon. A series of scandals that does not make it easy for the current monarch Felipe VI to try to restore the authority and popularity of the Spanish royal family.