King Felipe, Queen Letizia, Princess Leonor, Princess Sofia and Queen Sofia greeting the Nacional Dance Company after their performance of Don Quixote, 03.01.2016.
Infanta Cristina arrived at the court in Palma, Mallorca on Monday with her husband, Iñaki Urdangarin, who is accused of embezzlement and money laundering. They made no statement to reporters. A small group of anti-monarchists protested outside. Cristina is the first member of the country’s royal family to be put on trial. Cristina Federica Victoria Antonia de la Santísima Trinidad de Borbón y de Grecia – her full title – and 17 co-defendants face 89 charges ranging from fraud and money laundering to trafficking of influences. Three rows of defendants sat in court on blue chairs, facing the panel of judges. Infanta Cristina sat in the third row, at the end, and away from her husband. In this week’s preliminary session her lawyers will attempt to argue that the case should be dropped. The three judges on the panel have until 9 February to rule on their arguments. The accusations involve the Noos Institute, a non-profit organisation for the promotion of sports and tourism founded by Iñaki. Iñaki and his business partner are alleged to have diverted around €6.2 million from public contracts into private accounts. The king’s sister sat on the board of a company named, Aizoon, that was allegedly used to channel some of these funds. One of the allegations against Cristina is that she made personal use of Aizoon funds for clothes, dance lessons for the couple’s children, and work on the couple’s Barcelona mansion. In June 2015, King Felipe issued a decree stripping his sister of her title as Duchess of Palma.