The London Court of Appeal hears this Tuesday the appeal of King Emeritus Juan Carlos I against the civil lawsuit filed by his former lover, Corinna Zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, for harassment and defamation.
That court, in its civil division, has reserved the day of the 8th to listen to the arguments of the lawyers of the emeritus, of the Carter Ruck law firm, on this appeal, which is limited only to the period between 2012 and June 2014, when Juan Carlos abdicated In her civil lawsuit, the emeritus's ex-lover accuses the former Spanish head of state of having subjected her to "harassment" from 2012 to 2020.
The defense of the king emeritus will try to revoke the initial decision of Judge Matthew Nicklin not to recognize him any immunity from the lawsuit, which would allow Juan Carlos I to stop the civil actions undertaken by the businesswoman.
During the hearing, the resolution adopted on March 24 by Nicklin, a judge of the Superior Court of Justice, who determined that Don Juan Carlos did not enjoy the immunity conferred by the Head of State for having abdicated, will be reviewed. "There is only one King and one head of state in Spain and, since June 19, 2014, that is his son, King Felipe VI," he ruled.
The defense of the former monarch then presented a brief where he put forward several arguments to get him to be allowed to appeal. After a hearing held on July 18, the Court of Appeals gave the green light to challenge the former head of state, but only based on three of the five reasons adduced by his lawyers, estimating that they were well-founded allegations. With this decision, the case against Juan Carlos I must go to trial.
In that hearing, Juan Carlos I's lawyers argued that, despite his abdication in 2014, he is a member of the Royal House and, as such, maintains a special relationship with Felipe VI that means that any action taken against him affects the functions of the current head of state.
In her written civil lawsuit, Zu Sayn-Wittgenstein accuses the king emeritus of having subjected her to "harassment" personally or through "agents" at his service, allegedly sometimes coordinated by the former director of the National Intelligence Center (CNI) Félix Sanz Roldán, what Juan Carlos I has denied. According to the plaintiff, these actions, for which she is seeking compensation for damages and a protective court order, "threatened" her safety and that of her children.
During the past hearings in the High Court of London, the defense of the emeritus argued that he has immunity under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961.
The hearing coincides with the broadcast of a Corinna podcast, in which she reveals intimate details of her past relationship with Juan Carlos, whom she met in the world of hunting. According to accounts, the bond between them reached a point where Corinna felt as if she were not only his girlfriend but his wife, despite the fact that he, she claims, had many mistresses. The podcast is titled "Corinna and the King," produced by the Project Brazen content studio, co-founded by journalists Tom Wright and Bradley Hope, along with PRX.
