The patience of the three magistrates of the Court of Appeal studying Corinna Larsen's lawsuit against Juan Carlos I was very scarce this Tuesday.
Eleanor King, Ingred Simler (two female judges) and Andrew Popplewell (one female judge) have listened without question to the arguments made by the lawyer representing the King Emeritus, Thimothy Otty, as they stirred restlessly and harassed James Lewis, the jurist representing the businesswoman.
It has not been a good day for Larsen's legal strategy, and perhaps by chance, perhaps as a precaution, it has been the first of all hearings of a clearly mediatic trial from which the former sentimental partner of the former head of the Spanish State has decided to absent himself.
Still, through her attorneys' brief, she has dropped two new time bombs,
in its strategy of harassment and demolition.
He has accused the king emeritus of trying to use her as a figurehead to hide her fortune, and has implicated the Eulen Group in his harassment claim.
“This trial is having a very high cost for both parties, it is complex and takes up a lot of time in the administration of Justice.
Rigor and accuracy are important”, judge King reproached Lewis in one of the most tense moments of the day.
The purpose of the hearing was very specific.
The three magistrates had to attend and study the appeal of the legal team of Juan Carlos I against the decision of the judge in the case, Matthew Nicklin, by which he denied procedural immunity to the defendant during the time he was Head of State, until her abdication in June 2014. Larsen's lawsuit includes several alleged episodes of harassment and coercion against her from 2012 until October 16, 2020, when she decided to go to the British courts.
The defense of the emeritus king has clung at all times to an apparent procedural error of the opposing party that may end up having serious consequences in the development of the process.
If in the previous account of the facts that shaped the lawsuit, Larsen's legal team made it clear that the then general director of the National Intelligence Center (CNI), General Félix Sanz Roldán, and operatives under his command had visited, pressured and allegedly threatened Larsen, in the subsequent corrections of the lawsuit he was no longer the top chief of the Spanish spies or agents of the center, but a friend of the king emeritus who acted in a personal capacity and as a staff member of a private security company. security.
Eulen's surprise
“As we have learned now, in the Monaco operation of 2012 [agents sent by Sanz Roldán carried out a search and cleaning operation in Larsen's apartment in that city], it was not a CNI team.
It was a team from Grupo Eulen, founded by another close friend of the defendant [businessman David Álvarez Díez, who died in November 2015] and owner of his favorite vineyards [Bodegas Vega Sicilia].
It is very relevant information to provide context to the acts prior to the abdication.
They were not part of a state operation, but of a hidden campaign by the defendant for which he relied on his friends, ”the Larsen legal team assured in its new letter.
The steps taken by the businesswoman's lawyers in recent months suggest that they have tried to change their legal strategy at full speed to avoid the application of the State Immunity Act of 1978, of the United Kingdom.
It is a convoluted procedural question, but very important.
If it were proven, as Juan Carlos I's lawyers claim and judicial precedents establish, that Sanz Roldán, his men or the king emeritus himself acted "under the color of authority" —that is, under the appearance of acting protected by their rank of State – immunity from prosecution should apply.
And if, as a result of this decision, all the acts prior to the abdication contemplated in the lawsuit were ruled out of the trial, it would be very difficult to sustain the entire narrative with which the case is argued.
“The judge had before him a lawsuit in which there was no room for ambiguity.
It made the constant participation of the CNI very clear, and all of this leads to immunity from prosecution”, defended the lawyer Otty.
Because the original sin of the strategy of Larsen's legal team can be nothing less than a botched procedural maneuver.
Judge Nicklin, clearly convinced from the beginning that Juan Carlos I did not enjoy procedural immunity before or after his abdication, suggested
in voce
to Larsen's lawyers —in full court, without demanding a formal amendment procedure— that they change his text slightly to make it clear that Sanz Roldán acted in a personal capacity.
The lawyers caught the move on the fly, and amended the lawsuit.
If the CNI was no longer involved, the immunity of the emeritus king was ruled out, because any of his alleged misdeeds would no longer have been carried out "based on his public function."
a tense session
If the lawyer who represented the king emeritus had harsh words to define this maneuver —"a forced instrument and in bad faith"—, the three magistrates of the Court of Appeal also showed their displeasure with a procedural extravagance that added confusion to the case.
“What demand should we stick to?
To the first statement of facts that was presented accompanied by an affidavit from the plaintiff?
Or the corrected version, which was also sworn under oath?” Judge Simler pressed the lawyer Lewis.
The court has warned Larsen's lawyer that, if the amendment was finally rejected because it had not been carried out properly, he would run the risk of returning to the starting line: he would have to defend the original claim —the one attributed to Sanz Roldán and his men from the CNI the acts of harassment-, which brings closer the possibility of procedural immunity of the king emeritus.
Lawyer Lewis's next legal stunt has further irritated the magistrates.
According to the fifth section of the State Immunity Law, procedural immunity ceases to apply to a foreign leader “in case of death or personal injury”.
At no time during the lawsuit is it argued or documented that the alleged pressure suffered by Larsen had caused her psychiatric disorders, although episodes of "depression or anxiety" are vaguely mentioned.
And yet, the businesswoman's lawyer has tried to use that security wild card: "we have argued it slightly" in the lawsuit, defended Lewis, who could not help but laugh, along with the magistrates, at his own occurrence.
A "sinister" money
That Larsen, again on all the covers and televisions for the
podcast
released this Monday,
Corinna and the King
, in which she tells her story of love and heartbreak with Juan Carlos I, was absent during the hearing has not prevented her from continuing to make headlines.
A paragraph from his lawyer's argument document, a paragraph that Lewis did not even bother to refer to during his oral presentation before the magistrates, immediately caught the attention of the Spanish media that follows the case: "Although [the king emeritus] justified the ' gift from Lucum' [the 65 million he donated to Larsen, from a Panamanian fund with that name] in the affection he felt towards her and her children, which he could not reflect in his will, now it turns out that the motives were more sinister " , suggests Larsen in his new argument, after new information known in May 2022.
“Changes in Swiss banking laws required the defendant to disclose his interests in Lucum (as well as his refusal to disclose them, as part of a tax amnesty).
The defendant thought that he could hide those funds if he gave them to the plaintiff as a donation, but under the premise that she would allow him to dispose of them, ”the businesswoman indicated in her new letter.
Beyond the decision of the magistrates, which can take weeks due to the complexity of the matter, the day was not wasted for Larsen, who managed to convey the message of how far she is willing to pull the blanket.
In a civil process in which what is discussed is money, and which can be stopped at any time with an out-of-court settlement, the battle is fought not so much with complex procedural arguments as with shows of force.
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