The Spanish judiciary has announced the end of all investigations against former King Juan Carlos I – paving the way for the former head of state to return to Spain. According to the public prosecutor’s office on Wednesday, the three investigations against the 84-year-old ex-monarch were dropped, among other things, due to “lack of evidence, statute of limitations and the inviolability” that Juan Carlos enjoyed as head of state.
Juan Carlos’ lawyer Javier Sánchez-Junco confirmed that the investigation against his client had been discontinued. The public prosecutor’s office did not “in any of the cases” identify “misconduct” that “could be attributed to King Juan Carlos”.
The Spanish public prosecutor had launched three investigations into Juan Carlos since 2020. Among other things, it was about dubious gifts of money in the millions from Saudi Arabia and allegations of money laundering. At the center of the suspicions was a sum of 100 million dollars (65 million euros) that the then Saudi Arabian King Abdullah had deposited in 2008 into a Swiss bank account that Juan Carlos also had access to.
Investigators have found no direct or indirect link between the payment and the award of a contract to a Spanish consortium to build a high-speed rail link between Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia, the prosecutor said in a statement. As early as December, the Swiss judiciary had stopped investigating Juan Carlos’ mysterious assets for lack of evidence.
Juan Carlos has been living in exile in Abu Dhabi since August 2020. At the time, he wrote to his son, Spain’s King Felipe VI, in a letter that he had made the decision to leave the country suddenly because of “the effects that certain events of the past have had on my private life”. He hopes that going into exile will enable Felipe to carry out his duties with the necessary “calm”.
Since then, Felipe has repeatedly distanced himself from his father. Among other things, last year he withdrew Juan Carlos from the royal family of the usual surcharge of 200,000 euros for ex-monarchs.