Spanish royals defend their honour as scandal closes in

By Sinikka Tarvainen Jan 3, 2012, 14:27 GMT

Madrid - Spain's royal family is trying to defend its honour as a corruption scandal closes in on royal son-in-law Inaki Urdangarin, its first member to have been charged in a judicial investigation.

'Justice is the same for all' and 'reprehensible behaviour must be punished,' King Juan Carlos said in his Christmas address, just a few days before Princess Cristina's husband was made an official suspect.

The Zarzuela royal palace also took the unprecedented step of making its budget details public, in a show of financial transparency.

The moves earned the king a long round of applause in parliament, but they may not be enough to protect the royal family as Urdangarin prepares to be questioned by a judge on February 25.

Urdangarin's business partner Diego Torres, three former Balearic Islands officials and a suspected intermediary have also been charged in the case.

The scandal only became public a few months ago, but there is evidence that the king was aware of his son-in-law's irregular financial dealings years earlier, according to media reports.

The palace reportedly tried to prevent those dealings from becoming public by advising Cristina and her husband to move to the United States, which they did in 2009.

Urdangarin, a 43-year-old former Olympic handball player, married Cristina, three years older, in 1997. The princess is the second of Juan Carlos' and Queen Sofia's three children, and seventh in line to the throne.

On marrying her, Urdangarin was given the title Duke of Palma de Majorca. The couple has four children.

The roots of the scandal lie in the non-profit Noos Institute, which the duke headed from 2004 to 2006.

Investigators believe Urdangarin and Torres used the institute to organize events related to sports and tourism, diverting more than 1.3 million euros (1.7 million dollars) in public and private funds to their own companies.

About 470,000 euros were channelled to tax havens abroad, the daily El Pais reported Tuesday.

The king forced Urdangarin to leave the Noos Institute in 2006, but he nevertheless remained involved with illicit financial activities, according to investigators quoted by press reports.

Cristina was involved with the Noos Institute and one of her husband's companies, though investigators believe she was not aware of the financial details.

Urdangarin, meanwhile, has continued to maintain his innocence.

Revelations about the duke's allegedly fraudulent earnings - which allowed him to buy his family a luxury villa in Barcelona - have not gone down well in Spain, where nearly five million people are unemployed and the new conservative government has announced drastic spending cuts.

By making its accounts public for the first time, the royal family tried to contain the scandal.

King Juan Carlos' annual salary amounts to 292,752 euros - a moderate level by royal European standards, the accounts revealed.

The palace's total budget is 8.4 million euros. Queen Sofia, Crown Prince Felipe and his wife Letizia, Princesses Elena and Cristina get allowances from the budget, but Urdangarin does not.

However, the royal budget does not include palace-related spending by government ministries, the daily El Mundo noted, estimating the total cost of the monarchy at 50 million euros annually.

The palace acted swiftly to distance itself from Urdangarin. A Zarzuela spokesman condemned the duke's behaviour as 'not exemplary.' Even his wax figure was removed from the royal family group at the Madrid wax museum.

Despite growing anti-monarchist sentiment among separatists in north-eastern Catalonia in recent years, the Spanish royal family still enjoys a widespread popularity largely based on the king's contribution to helping the country consolidate its democracy after the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.

If Cristina becomes drawn into the corruption scandal, that popularity is expected to suffer a serious blow.