Brother-in-law of Spain’s king in jail
Urdangarin, 50, starts his six-year sentence for embezzlement and corruption
The Spanish king’s brother-in-law began a sixyear jail sentence yesterday, drawing a line under a long-running corruption scandal that enraged the public and brought shame on the royal family.
Inaki Urdangarin, the husband of King Felipe’s sister Cristina, arrived at a prison north of Madrid early yesterday after losing an appeal at the Supreme Court last week.
The former Olympic handball player was sentenced to five years and 10 months of prison for embezzling millions of euros in a case which caused uproar and even contributed to the abdication of Felipe’s father.
Urdangarin, 50, turned himself in at a facility near Brieva, about 100 kilometres north of Madrid, at 8:00am (0600 GMT). The move brings to a close a long-running scandal that has embarrassed the Spanish royal family.
Urdangarin went from being the golden boy who charmed the Spanish royals in the 1990s to the black sheep who tainted the royal family’s reputation.
He was guilty last year of embezzling millions of euros between 2004 and 2006 from the non-profit Noos Institute sports foundation that he headed on the island of Majorca. The probe first began in 2010 and the scandal really took off a year later when the royal family excluded him from its activities.
Urdangarin’s jail term began as King Felipe VI was poised to kick off an official visit to the United States where he will meet US President Donald Trump today.
Angry protests
The case fuelled angry protests by Spaniards suffering hardship in an economic crisis.
Urdangarin was seen as a symbol of the elite’s perceived corruption. It also soured the end of Juan Carlos’s reign.
He gave up the throne in June 2014, hoping his son Felipe VI could freshen up the image of the monarchy.
Urdangarin and Cristina eventually moved with their children to Switzerland.
In 2015, King Felipe VI stripped them of their titles of duke and duchess of Palma.