The former king Juan Carlos is seeking sovereign immunity at the court against claims he used Spain’s spy agency to harass a Danish businesswoman, Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein. The threats began when Roldán met Sayn-Wittgenstein at London’s Connaught Rooms in 2012, two years before Juan Carlos abdicated the Spanish throne and his son Felipe became king. Sayn-Wittgenstein claims that at the time Juan Carlos was demanding the return of gifts he had given her when they were lovers, including art, jewellery and £65m in cash, the skeleton argument says. He argued sovereign immunity should apply because the only way Juan Carlos could have persuaded officials from Spain’s intelligence agency to act on his behalf was because he either was or had been king. The claimant refers to His Majesty using the head of the Spanish national intelligence agency, ‘agents and/or agents or contractors’ of the intelligence agency and other ‘operatives’ to conduct physical and digital surveillance and ‘trespass’ on her property.

Source: The Guardian December 06, 2021 23:48 UTC