06 May 2024,   08:25
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Spain’s former king leaving country amid financial scandal

The former monarch of Spain, King Juan Carlos I, says he is leaving to live in another country, weeks after he was linked to an investigation into allegations of corruption.


In June, Spain’s Supreme Court opened an investigation into Juan Carlos’s involvement with a high-speed rail contract in Saudi Arabia after Switzerland’s La Tribune de Geneve newspaper reported he had received USD 100 million from Saudi Arabia"s late King Abdullah.


Through his lawyer, Javier Sanchez-Junco, Juan Carlos, who is 82, has declined to comment on the allegations.


Sanchez-Junco said in a brief statement on Monday that the former king had asked him to make clear that even though he will be outside Spain he intends to be available to cooperate with the investigation.


It was not immediately clear whether Juan Carlos was still in Spain, but El Mundo newspaper reported that Juan Carlos had already left the country.


“I am informing you of my considered decision to move, during this period, out of Spain”, - Juan Carlos said in a letter to his son King Felipe published on the royal family’s website.

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