Madrid asks Bern for legal aid about fugitive ex-king
Graffiti of Juan Carlos in Valencia on Wednesday
Keystone
Spain has asked Switzerland for legal assistance in connection with scandal-plagued former king, Juan Carlos, who has fled the country and gone into hiding amid corruption allegations.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA/Reuters/ts
Português
pt
Madrid pede ajuda legal à Suíça no caso do ex-rei fugitivo
The justice ministry received a request for legal assistance in February, a spokeswoman for the ministry told the Keystone-SDA news agency on Wednesday. She said the request had been delegated to the Geneva prosecutor’s office for execution.
The Geneva prosecutor’s office has not commented on the case and the justice ministry spokeswoman did not provide any further details.
The foreign ministry told Keystone-SDA that the Swiss authorities were cooperating with Spain in the Juan Carlos case. It said the former king’s assets had not been not frozen in connection with the request for legal assistance since the conditions for this had not been met.
Tarnished image
The Spanish royal family unexpectedly announced on Monday that 82-year-old Juan Carlos had left Madrid and was going into exile. His whereabouts remain a mystery. The foreign ministry said it had no information on whether he was in Switzerland.
More
More
Mainland Spain added to Swiss list of coronavirus risk countries
This content was published on
The Swiss health authorities have decided to add mainland Spain and six other nations to its list of coronavirus risk countries.
The palace statement quoted Juan Carlos’s letter to his son, King Felipe, as saying that he wanted to enable Felipe to rule untroubled “amid the public repercussions that certain past events in my private life are generating”.
In June the Spanish Supreme Court opened an investigation into Juan Carlos’s involvement in a high-speed rail contract in Saudi Arabia, after Swiss newspaper La Tribune de Genève reported he had received $100 million (CHF90 million) from the late Saudi King.
Juan Carlos came to the throne in 1975 after the death of General Francisco Franco and was widely respected for his role in helping guide Spain from dictatorship to democracy. But recent scandals have tarnished his image, prompting him to abdicate in 2014 and now to leave the country.
More
More
Princess summoned to court from Geneva
This content was published on
The youngest daughter of King Juan Carlos, who has lived in Geneva with her four children since August 2013, has been ordered to appear in court on March 8 for questioning about her partnership with her husband in a firm called Aizoon. He is already being investigated for allegations of using his position to embezzle €6…
Swiss institute hosted informal talks between Russians, Ukrainians and Americans
This content was published on
The Geneva Center for Security Policy (GCSP) has hosted 10 meetings between Russian and Ukrainian interlocutors since the start of the war.
Automated driving on Swiss motorways is theoretically possible from March
This content was published on
It will be theoretically possible to hand over the steering wheel to technology but no such system has been submitted for official approval yet.
Heated atmosphere at Swiss rally against AfD politician Alice Weidel
This content was published on
Around 250 people demonstrated "against the right" and the German AfD politician Alice Weidel on Saturday afternoon in Einsiedeln.
This content was published on
The Ethos Foundation recommends that shareholders vote against all compensation-related items at the Annual General Meeting on March 7.
Top Swiss firms close to reaching gender quota in boards
This content was published on
The proportion of women on the boards of directors of the fifty largest listed companies in Switzerland currently stands at 28%.
This content was published on
After a formal reception at a Swiss government house on the outskirts of the capital, Bern, the royal couple were taken to the parliament buildings. Talks between this year’s Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey and Spanish Foreign Minister Trinidad Jiménez – who is accompanying the king and queen – were also on the agenda. At a…
This content was published on
Calmy-Rey, who is also the foreign minister, took time out to attack a proposal to ban minarets in Switzerland, which she called “unconstitutional”. The president met the Spanish prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, on Tuesday. Speaking to the media later at the Swiss embassy in Madrid, she said she admired the Socialist premier’s “innovative…
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.