Spain: King's brother-in-law must go to prison
King Felipe of Spain's brother-in-law Iñaki Urdangarín has been sentenced to five years and ten months in prison. The Supreme Court in Madrid upheld a regional court's sentence that found him guilty of embezzling six million euros in tax money, money laundering and fraud. Spanish media praise the country's justice, and also the royal family.
Spanish justice works
The ruling is the best proof that Spanish justice works, El Mundo comments with satisfaction:
“In all probability these are Iñaki Urdangarín's last hours of freedom. A lamentable episode that threatened the Spanish monarch and led to the abdication of Juan Carlos I has come to an end. ... Today we can congratulate each other on the functioning rule of law in our state. Justice has been done. There has been no impunity, contrary to the repeated claims of certain populist sectors obsessed with discrediting the institutions.”
Monarchy is a strong role model
The exemplary neutrality of the Spanish royal family in this affair has strengthened it against those who want to see the monarchy abolished, writes ABC:
“The usual opportunists will use this sentence as an excuse to attack the monarchy. But the Crown has behaved in an exemplary manner by not interfering with judicial decisions regarding Iñaki Urdangarín and Infanta Cristina. ... King Juan Carlos's words when he said during his Christmas address in 2011 that 'justice applies equally to all' have taken on a special meaning today. The argument that applies for Spanish society counters that put forward by the nostalgic republicans: the Crown has demonstrated in the Urdangarín case that it is a guarantee of respect among the institutions.”