Court to decide on imprisonment of Spanish king’s brother-in-law

The Spanish Supreme Court not only has the independence case as a hot topic to deal with. From this Wednesday, it will also consider the appeal made by the Spanish king’s brother-in-law, Iñaki Urdangarin, who was sentenced to six years and three months in prison for corruption offenses. The final decision on reducing Urdangarin’s sentence could be made public on Wednesday, or in the next few days.

What the court decides will be a final judgment, and can only be appealed in Spain’s Constitutional Court. If the Supreme Court hands down a final sentence of more than two years in prison, Urdangarin will have to enter a correctional facility –unless the Constitutional Court suspends the ruling while it makes a final decision on a final appeal. If Urdangarin, linked for years with Barcelona and Catalonia, does go to prison, he will become the first relative of a Spanish monarch to be jailed for corruption.

As a former professional handball player, Urdangarin spent 14 seasons playing for FC Barcelona (1986-2000) and living in the Catalan capital. While still playing, in 1997 he married Infanta Cristina, the daughter of the then Spanish King Juan Carlos. The wedding ceremony was held in Barcelona and the couple went on living in the city until 2009.

Condemned for fraud

A court in Palma de Mallorca found Urdangarin guilty of perversion of justice, false documentation, misuse of public funds, two crimes against the Spanish Tax Office, influence peddling and fraud against the administration. For some years in the 2000s he was in charge of Instituto Nóos, a firm which used to organize mainly sports events –but which also produced reports, among others things– for public administrations. 

Urdangarin was accused of winning public contracts for Instituto Nóos in the Valencia area and in the Balearic Islands by taking advantage of his status as the king’s relative. He was also charged over suspicion of embezzling funds from these contracts to avoid paying taxes in Spain through a network of offshore companies. As the allegations were made public, the then King Juan Carlos steadily distanced the Royal Family from Urdangarin and his wife –the then monarch’s daughter.

Stripped of dukedom

Upon the king’s abdication, Felipe VI took the throne and in 2015 stripped his sister and brother-in-law of their titles as Dukes of Palma de Mallorca. Last year, after sentencing Urdangarin to six years in jail, the Mallorca court allowed him to avoid prison while awaiting a final judgment by the Supreme Court. The couple were allowed to leave Spain and moved to Geneva, Switzerland. At the same time, some Catalan leaders in pre-trial jail over the independence case have been denied release due to their “risk of fleeing.”