Mallorcan judge summons Iñaki Urdangarin to court as suspect as reports allege he siphoned public funds to private firms

This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

A judge subpoenaed the son-in-law of Spain's king, Juan Carlos, on Thursday to testify as a suspect in a corruption case, deepening a public relations nightmare for the royal family at a time of acute economic crisis for the public.

The case surrounding Iñaki Urdangarin, husband to the king's daughter Cristina, has been front-page news for weeks. But on Thursday in Mallorca, Judge Jose Castro named him as a formal suspect.

He has not been charged with a crime. And an official at the royal palace declined to comment.

The Balearic Islands superior court of justice stated that Urdangarin was called to testify on 6 February, in Palma.

The one-page document did not mention the allegations. But Spanish media said Urdangarin, 43, was suspected of siphoning money from public contracts awarded from 2004 to 2006 to a nonprofit foundation that he led.

On 12 December the palace announced that Urdangarin would, for the time being, cease taking part in official ceremonies involving the royal family.

In an unprecedented show of transparency, the palace this week made public the details of the stipend the royal family receives from the national budget. It revealed that Carlos earned €292,552 a year in salary and expenses, and that his son, Crown Prince Felipe, had roughly half that amount.

In his Christmas Eve speech the king expressed concern over what he described as the declining confidence among Spaniards in public institutions, a remark seen as a reference to the scandal surrounding his son-in-law, a commoner who used to be a professional handball player.

Judge Castro's order on Thursday made public an until-now sealed case file that the newspaper El País said held 2,700 pages.

Spanish newspapers have quoted investigators as saying Urdangarin was suspected, among other things, of having taken funds from the €6m his nonprofit foundation received from the regional governments in Valencia and the Balearic Islands for organising events such as sports seminars. The claims say he diverted the money to for-profit companies that he ran.

The case is part of a broader, long-running, corruption investigation involving the regional government in the Balearics.

Since 2009 Urdangarin, the princess and their four children, have lived in Washington, DC, where he works for the Spanish telecommunications company Telefonica.

King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia have three children. Crown Prince Felipe is the youngest, Princess Cristina is the middle child, and the eldest is Princess Elena.