Juan Carlos went into voluntary exile in 2020, fueled by allegations of corruption.
Former King of Spain plagued by allegations of corruption Juan Carlos has returned from exile to visit his homeland. He flew in a private plane to Vigo in northwestern Spain on Thursday night and was scheduled to spend the night with a friend in Sanxenxo.
On Monday, the former king will travel to Madrid to meet his wife Sofiathe king of his son Felipe and other members of his family, after which he is scheduled to return to Abu Dhabi.
According to Spanish media, the country’s government is vehemently opposed to Juan Carlos staying overnight during a visit to the Royal Palace.
– Anyone who returns to our country with a register similar to that of Juan Carlos would be arrested and charged immediately after crossing the border, the left-wing party in the government, Podemos, tweeted.
Paid tax arrears for more than 5 million
Juan Carlos relinquished his crown in favor of his son in 2014. In 2020, he announced he was going into voluntary exile in the United Arab Emirates. He has justified his exile by saying that “certain events in private life in the past have had public consequences.”
The deportation was based on suspicions of corruption, according to which Juan Carlos had received bribes worth tens of millions of euros. In addition, he has been accused of evading taxes, although he has since paid more than five million euros to the state.
The Spanish newspaper El País wrote in its editorial on Thursday that the obstacles to the ex-king’s visit are not so much legal as ethical.
– There is no longer any legal or legal reason to prevent the King of Emeritus from traveling to Spain, but there are numerous ethical reasons that explain the uproar that this has caused, the magazine wrote.
Switzerland closed a corruption investigation last year
In December 2021, Swiss prosecutors said they had closed a more than three-year corruption investigation against Juan Carlos. The investigation was based on suspicions that the king would have received a bribe of almost € 90 million in 2008 to secure a high-speed rail link contract for the Spanish consortium to Saudi Arabia.
According to the prosecutors, the link between the amount of money transferred from Saudi Arabia to Switzerland and the bullet train connection agreement could not be sufficiently established in the investigations.