News of Spanish King’s Half-a-Million-Dollar Secret Honeymoon Splurge Stokes Ire

Last week The Telegraph newspaper revealed that the extravagant honeymoon of Spain’s Royal Couple, a 2004 trip extending from Cambodia to Fiji, Samoa, California and Mexico, was paid for by his father, then King, Juan Carlos I, who is currently under investigation for alleged corruption.

Josep Cusí, a business friend of Juan Carlos I since the 70s and friend of the dictator Franco, allegedly acted as proxy by footing $269,000 of the $467,000 bill for the current Spanish monarch’s secret honeymoon. According to The Telegraph, Juan Carlos I paid half directly and half indirectly.

Cusí, who has always kept a low profile, is the emeritus king’s close confidant. He has accompanied him during surgical operations and medical check-ups. They have also been together in hunts and private trips. His name appeared in the press in 1984 when he allegedly punched a Spanish journalist in Italy because he had reported that one of his yachts had been sold for $275,000.

Relationship with Dictator Franco

Cusí had a good relationship with Dictator Franco. For twelve years, he traveled to the Pardo palace every Thursday to eat with him, as he confessed during an interview for Radio 4 a few years ago. “We would eat there and then I would give him shooting lessons,” he said.

In the same interview, he confessed to have inherited one of the shotguns of the dictator when he died. “It was an honor for me to receive that gift,” he said.

Relationship with the current king

In 2011, Cusí affirmed to have a good relationship with King Felipe VI. “I met Felipe when he was still in diapers, and we have a great relationship,” he said in an interview.

Following the Telegraph revelations, Spanish society should ask themselves whether the King and his spouse should pay back the money for their 2004 holiday. And if so, how and to who?

Racist Police Assault on a Young Man in Catalonia

On Monday, the anti-racist organization, SOS Racisme, revealed that a young man had suffered a racist assault at the hands of Catalan police officers (Mossos) on January 10th, 2019, in San Felíu Saserra, Catalonia.

The events took place on the afternoon of January 10, 2019, when the victim, Wubi, was leaving his apartment located in the same building in which a police supervised eviction taking place in the same building was underway. SOS Racisme explained how in the parking lot, a group of police officers entered and asked for his identification. As they checked his ID, one of the officers asked him if he was the building’s “gardener,” then “they started throwing garbage bags at him, pushing him, spitting on him and hitting him on the head while making racist insults.”

When Wubi tried to escape from the attack, one of the officers fired a gun at him. Fortunately, the officer missed and the bullet didn’t hit him, according to SOS Racisme. The young man then called his neighbors to warn them, but one of the officers got on the phone and threatened to issue a “search and arrest warrant” for him if he did not return. Faced with this, the young man decided to return while beginning to record the encounter on his cell phone. Once he returned, one of the officers threw him to the ground again, kicked him in the ribs, spat on him and humiliated him with racist insults. “They made me feel worse than shit” the young man said in a statement published by SOS Racisme.

In the audio recorded by the victim and published by the newspaper La Directa, the police officers physically attack the young man while he begs them to stop. “I am a human being just like you,” he said. The officers make racist remarks, such as “you are a monkey, you son of a bitch.” They also told him that the next time he sees the police he will run to Africa. “I’m racist a lot,” said one of the officers.

According to judicial sources, the case about the racist attack was opened in February of 2019 and the officers were charged with a crime of personal injury and a crime against moral integrity. The case is being investigated by the courtroom number 5 of Manresa, the same one that filed the complaint by the police against the victim. The same sources clarify that the six officers investigated were summoned to court last October and exercised their right to not testify. The court case is still open pending further proceedings.

The officers involved in the racist attack have been transferred to different locations and departments during the investigative process, but have not been suspended, granting them impunity.

For SOS Racisme, this case “is not only a consequence of the racist ideology of a group of Mossos officers,” but “is a testament to lack of control mechanisms, impunity, racism and police corporatism.”

Spain’s Supreme Court Public Prosecutor Investigates King Emeritus, Juan Carlos I, for Money Laundering

On Monday, Spain’s Supreme Court Public Prosecutor began proceedings to investigate King Emeritus, Juan Carlos I, for money laundering and fiscal crime. The investigation was initiated by the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office and has now been taken over by the public prosecutor.

The investigation focuses on the criminal activities which occurred after June, 2014, when the monarch abdicated and his immunity, enshrined in article 56.3 of the Spanish constitution as head of state, terminated.

The investigation originates from a case uncovered by the Swiss newspaper, Geneva Tribune, in March. It reported that the Swiss Prosecutor’s Office was investigating a “donation” of $100 million from the King of Saudi Arabia to Spain’s King Emeritus in a Swiss bank account for an alleged inter-mediation in the AVE contract to Mecca.

The transfer was made at the Mirabaud bank of the Panamanian Lucum foundation, linked to the emeritus king in 2008. The king closed the account in 2012 when Switzerland tightened its anti-money laundering legislation and distributed the remaining money to two of his ex-partners: $65 million to Corinna Larsen and $2 million to Marta Gayá.

Corinna Larsen revealed the commission received by Juan Carlos I in a secret conversation with former police Commissioner, José Villarejo, jailed in 2017 for criminal organization, bribery and money laundering. In the conversation, Corinna asserted that the king took that commission and that he used figureheads to hide his fortune. “He does not distinguish between legal and illegal.”

The alleged commission was paid in 2008, but the investigators must determine whether the king laundered money by moving it around, or if he committed a fiscal crime by not informing the Treasury of his income abroad.

Prosecutor Juan Ignacio Campos, an expert in economic cases, will lead the inquiry, which will look into the events in which Juan Carlos was involved from June 2014. The emeritus king cannot be tried for anything occurred before due to his immunity.

The World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) Calls for the Annulment of the Convictions of Jailed Catalan Leaders Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sànchez Over 2017 Peaceful Demonstration

The World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) has demanded the annulment of the convictions of jailed Catalan leaders Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sànchez over the 2017 peaceful demonstration.

In a letter sent to Spain’s PM, Pedro Sánchez, the OMCT Secretary General, Gerald Staberock, demands that their sentences be suspended until the Constitutional Court rules on their appeal, which was accepted for consideration on May 6.

Staberock calls on the Spanish state to respect the people’s freedom of expression and assembly enshrined in international treaties that have been adopted by Spain.

“Based on the analysis of the facts, the course of the trial and the content of Judgment No. 459/2019, two elements are of particular concern. The first of these is that the Supreme Court’s ruling violated Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sànchez’s individual rights. The verdict also sets a precedent that could negatively impact the effective enjoyment of the right to freedom of assembly in Spain,” says the anti-torture organization.

Staberock also calls for modification of the crime of sedition in a way that “establishes safeguards against possible restrictions to the exercise of the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.”

Cuixart and Sànchez were convicted for sedition by the Spanish Supreme Court in October 2019 for their roles in a peaceful demonstration in 2017.