LONDON: Spain’s former king Juan Carlos I won a partial victory in a harassment case in a London court on Tuesday when three appeal judges ruled that he could not be sued by his ex-mistress for harassment in British courts while he was on the throne.
The judges issued a written verdict saying that the ex-king was immune from the court’s jurisdiction in England and Wales until leaving the royal palace in 2014.
Now the petitioner Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn can pursue him in the British courts for his alleged offenses only after the time of his abdication.
Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn claims that the ex-king started a harassment campaign against her in 2012, when she ended an intimate romantic relationship with him, and it continues to this day.
Case haunts Spain’s former king since 2020
She filed a harassment case in London in 2020, accusing the former king of pressuring her to return gifts worth sixty million euros, including jewelry and artworks.
Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn’s lawyer called the latest ruling disappointing but said it only affected a small part of the case. –APP/AFP
