Spain Princess Cristina Loses Title Duchess of Palma
Princess Cristina is no longer the Duchess of Palma.
As reported by the BBC, King Felipe VI of Spain has removed the title from from his 50-year-old sister Infanta Cristina.
According to Princess Cristina’s attorney, it was upon her request that the king remove her title. The royal palace however has stated that the king made the decision before seeing any request.
The daughter of the former King and Queen of Spain, Juan Carlos, is set to go on trial for tax evasion. Princess Cristina, who denies the tax fraud charges aimed at her, was granted the title back in 1997 when she married Inaki Urdangarin, a former Olympic handball player who, like her, now stands accused of tax evasion.
Prosecutors in Palma de Mallorca have for years now been investigating the business dealings of Inaki Urdangarin, the 47-year-old retired athlete and royal who currently stands accused, along with 15 others, of embezzling $6 million of public money from the Noos Institute, a charitable foundation which he ran along with another business partner.
Princess Cristina is linked to the corruption of the alleged scandal.
The whole affair has obviously been an embarrassment for the royal household of Spain, which, as noted by The New York Times, has made efforts to distance itself from Urdangarin.
This is the first time in Spain's modern history that a member of the royal family has faced court cross-examination in a major corruption scandal. The charges of corruption came about last year, less than one week after Cristina’s brother ascended to the throne as King Felipe VI.
Juan Carlos’s popularity had already been fairly battered. In April 2012 he was compelled to issue a public apology after going on an African elephant-hunting vacation that was seen by many as an an act of offensive luxury as the Spanish citizens were enduring a tough recession.
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