Spain’s highest court has upheld a prison sentence against the King’s brother-in-law, in a ruling that could send a member of the country’s royal family to jail for the first time in modern history.
Last year, Urdangarin, who has four children with Princess Cristina and lives in Switzerland, was found guilty of using royal connections to overcharge regional governments through public contracts to stage sports and tourist events and with tax fraud.
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Princess Cristina, the king’s sister, was found not guilty of criminal charges but was fined about $312,000 for her involvement in her husband’s businesses, although this figure was later halved by the Supreme Court.
It followed a six-year investigation and came amid a slew of corruption cases against politicians and public figures which have rocked the monarchy and brought down the former prime minister, Mariano Rajoy.
Dozens of high-ranking officials from Raoy’s People’s Party (PP) were jailed last month before the prime minister himself was finally ousted in a vote of no confidence.
The New York Times says Urdangarin still has “a final, slim chance” of avoiding or delaying incarceration, if he appeals to Spain’s Constitutional Court and that court agrees to reopen the case.
Princess Cristina and her husband were stripped of their titles of the Duke and Duchess of Palma after the initial court verdict.
King Felipe, who assumed the throne after the abdication of his father, Juan Carlos in 2014, has now cut off all official ties with the couple, “as part of his efforts to fight corruption, increase transparency and improve the tainted image of the monarchy”, says the New York Times.
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