justice closes all its investigations against the ex-king Juan Carlos

A decision that paves the way to a possible return to Spain of Juan Carlos I, who went into exile in the Emirates in August 2020. Spanish justice announced, Wednesday, March 2, the dismissal of the three investigations aimed at the former monarch. The end of these investigations comes after a similar decision in December by the Swiss courts.

The surveys “do not allow criminal action to be taken against His Majesty Juan Carlos de Bourbon (…) in particular because of the lack of incriminating evidence, the prescription of the offenses and because of the inviolability” from which he benefited as head of state until 2014, the date of his abdication, announced the Spanish prosecutor’s office in a press release.

This decision could allow a return to Spain of the former sovereign. The latter’s lawyer said in a press release that he would communicate as such soon “the decisions” what his client might take.

A central figure in the democratic transition after the death of dictator Franco in 1975, Juan Carlos, who abdicated in 2014 amid scandals, was the target of three judicial investigations in Spain. As part of the most important of them, the prosecution sought to determine since December 2018 if the ex-sovereign, aged 84, had pocketed a commission for the allocation, in 2011, of the construction of a railway line between Mecca and Medina, in Saudi Arabia, to a Spanish consortium.

In a second case, Spanish prosecutors were investigating Juan Carlos’ alleged use of credit cards linked to bank accounts in the names of a Mexican entrepreneur and an air force officer. Spanish. Finally, the third investigation was opened a year ago after a report by the “money laundering prevention service” on an alleged trust linked to the ex-monarch in the Channel Island of Jersey, considered to be a tax haven.