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Spanish King Juan Carlos’s son-in-law Inaki Urdangarin arrived on the island of Majorca Friday on the eve of his court appearance in a corruption case.
The case implicating Urdangarin, 44, the Duke of Palma who is married to the king’s youngest daughter Cristina, is the first major scandal to touch Juan Carlos’s family and a major embarrassment for the royals.
Urdangarin and Cristina arrived by car late Friday evening at the Marivent Palace, a royal seaside summer home in Palma, capital of the Balearic Islands, an AFP photographer there said.
The couple was to stay the night there before Urdangarin appears in court in Palma first thing on Saturday for a preliminary hearing in the investigation, in which he is a suspect along with some of his former associates.
The duke, a former Olympic handball player, is suspected of siphoning off money paid by regional governments to the Noos Institute, a charitable group he chaired between 2004 and 2006 for staging sporting events and conferences.
He denies any wrongdoing, but the king has sought to distance himself from the affair and in December the royal family suspended Urdangarin from official engagements.
On Thursday Urdangarin’s own family released a statement defending his innocence and attacking what they called a “campaign of harassment” against him.