Princess Cristina’s lawyer to lodge appeal against court summons
Prosecutor claims there is “no evidence” to warrant naming king’s youngest daughter in case
Princess Cristina’s defense lawyer has said that he will appeal against the decision to call the king’s youngest daughter to the dock. The announcement by Miquel Roca i Junyent came shortly after his client was named as an official target in a money laundering and tax fraud investigation into the business affairs of her husband, Iñaki Urdangarin.
Roca will lodge his appeal with the Provincial Court of Palma de Mallorca, which blocked a prior attempt made by investigating Judge José Castro to summon the princess last April.
Speaking to reporters outside his Barcelona offices, Roca said that “it is not a very agreeable situation,” adding that the criteria laid out by Judge Castro in order to summons the princess were identical to the last attempt. In that instance, the Balearic court shared the opinion of the regional anticorruption prosecutor, Pedro Horrach, that there was no basis to call the king’s daughter into court. “I am absolutely convinced of her innocence,” Roca said.
Horrach reiterated his argument that there is “no incriminating evidence to warrant naming [the princess] as a target” in the investigation into Urdangarin, who stands accused of embezzling millions of euros of public money.
“You cannot implicate or punish somebody because of who they are, but because of what they have done,” Horrach said. Attorney General Eduardo Torres-Dulce has also stated on numerous occasions that there is no evidence to suggest any wrongdoing on the part of the princess.
The Royal Household, which has been fielding criticism from a number of fronts in recent years, responded to Tuesday’s development by issuing a statement saying: “We respect all judicial decisions.” Last week the spokesman for the royal family called on Judge Castro to bring proceedings “to a timely conclusion.”
The leader of the main opposition Socialist Party, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, echoed this sentiment when asked for an opinion. “[My answer] must be the same as always: the party respects all judicial decisions.”
“We are not ruling out the possibility of not appealing, if the judge is so keen to hear the princess’s explanations in person,” added lawyer Jesús María Silva, who also represents Cristina, on Tuesday.
Castro, meanwhile, stated that the act of testifying would dispel “any shadow of doubt” that the princess has received favorable treatment from the judicial system, as he did in his first summons in April of last year.
