Spain princess goes on graft trial today
Print Edition
A SMILING, educated, mother-of-four who was madly in love with her dashing husband, Princess Cristina had it all until a royal corruption scandal saw her plunge from Spanish darling to national ‘baddie.’
One of the accused in a historic trial that starts today in Majorca, Cristina will find herself in the dock on the very Mediterranean island where she once used to holiday in style.
The 50-year-old sister of King Felipe VI is going on trial — the first ever member of the Spanish royal family to do so — in a corruption scandal that has outraged Spaniards and led to her father’s abdication in 2014.
After a fairy-tale marriage to tall, dashing Olympic handball player Inaki Urdangarin in 1997, Cristina became a darling of the celebrity press and won praise for having a salaried job.
Her husband, who became Duke of Palma after marriage, was part of the Spanish Olympic handball team in 1992 in Barcelona and then in 1996 in Atlanta when they won bronze. The team would go on to win a second bronze in 2000 in Sydney with the duke as captain.
But then in 2011, Urdangarin was put under investigation for allegedly misappropriating public funds through the Noos charitable foundation he chaired, and charged with embezzlement, influence peddling, and money laundering.
Cristina is also in the dock for suspected tax fraud.
The scandal saw the popularity of the royals plunge and was part of the reason why King Juan Carlos, widely respected for guiding his country from dictatorship to democracy in the 1970s, was forced to abdicate the throne in 2014 in favor of his son Felipe. But that was not enough for outraged, crisis-hit Spaniards, and the new king later stripped Cristina and her husband of their titles as Duke and Duchess of Palma.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
