Former judges, prosecutors file complaint against Spain's emeritus King Juan Carlos for tax crimes

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

GENEVA (AA) - A group of former judges and prosecutors has filed a complaint against Spain's emeritus King Juan Carlos for tax crimes that could have been committed between 2014 and 2018, the Spanish news agency EFE reported on Monday.

The complaint, according to EFE, has been filed before the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court, which claims that there are sufficient elements to establish the existence of crimes against the Public Treasury between the mentioned years.

The report stated that the alleged incidents occurred after Juan Carlos abdicated, so he no longer has the immunity granted to him by Spanish courts previously.

The complaint focuses on the emeritus king’s alleged involvement in five crimes against the Public Treasury. It considers that the effects of the regularization of the tax situation that was carried out in 2021 have been applied improperly.

"With all due respect to the institution of the State Attorney General's Office, in which the Supreme Court Prosecutor's Office is integrated, we disagree with its opinion that considers that the regularization was carried out correctly," they claimed, according to the report.

They consider that the initial regularization of more than €600,000 (over $628,000) and later of another €4.4 million should not have been allowed because the emeritus king had already received two previous notifications and been offered the opportunity to participate in the procedure.

Juan Carlos has been living in Abu Dhabi since he suddenly left Spain in 2020 amid various investigations into corruption and financial misdoings.

However, all criminal proceedings against Juan Carlos have now been dropped in both Spain and Switzerland. And a trial he faced in the UK, where his ex-lover is suing him for harassment, has been thrown out by the court.

Juan Carlos abdicated the throne in 2014 following public criticism of a hunting trip to Botswana and a corruption scandal involving his daughter and son-in-law.