Princess Cristina’s appearance before Nóos case judge brought forward to February 8

Princess Cristina will testify before investigating Judge José Castro on February 8 as part of his probe into possible tax fraud, money-laundering and misappropriation of public funds in connection with the not-for-profit Nóos institute set up by her husband Iñaki Urdangarin and his former business partner Diego Torres, judiciary sources said Monday.

Earlier Monday, Castro said he was “obliged” to bring forward his questioning of Princess Cristina after she decided on Friday to waive her right to appeal the judge’s decision to name her as an official suspect in the case. Castro had initially summoned her to appear before him on March 8

The anticorruption prosecutor, who has opposed Princess Cristina being named as a suspect in the case, has said he will also not appeal against Castro’s decision.

The infanta’s lawyer, Miquel Roca, said earlier Monday that Princess Cristina wanted to testify as soon as possible because “she believes that she has to do so to clear up a situation in which she is absolutely convinced of her innocence.”

Roca said the idea not to appeal the subpoena came from the infanta herself, who has returned to Switzerland where she works after spending last week with her lawyers in Madrid and Barcelona. Roca said she would be returning to Barcelona soon to prepare for appearance before Castro, which the princess is hopeful “will leave everything very much cleared up.”

Urdangarin and Torres are under investigation for allegedly siphoning off 5.8 million euros in public contracts to organize events for the governments of Valencia and the Balearics. Castro believes that the infanta benefited from that money through her use of funds from Aizoon, a company she owns jointly with her husband and whose sole activity seems to be as a depository of Nóos money. The princess allegedly used that money for personal purposes but charged the outlays as expenses against Aizoon’s tax liabilities.