Spain's Sanchez Backs Limiting King's Immunity Amid Saudi Rail Deal Probe Into Ex-Monarch

MADRID (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th July, 2020) Spain may amend its constitution to limit the legal immunity of the head of state, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told El Diario newspaper amid a probe into former King Juan Carlos I over a Saudi rail project.

In June, prosecutors of Spain's Supreme Court announced the launch of a probe into the ex-king's involvement with the 2011 construction contract for a high-speed railway from Saudi Arabia's Mecca to Medina. It came amid revelations that Juan Carlos, who personally lobbied the project, reportedly received $100 million in 2008 from the late Saudi king. The probe looks into the possible violations of law committed after Juan Carlos abdicated in June 2014 and thus lost his immunity from prosecution.

"This is a norm that we all need to think about, and we will see what solution we find.

It is obvious that the Spanish constitution should change in accordance with how the requirements of society concerning the exemplary political behavior are changing," Sanchez said in an interview, published on Wednesday.

The Socialist government, the prime minister recalled, has previously raised the issue of a constitutional reform "to review the granting of special privileges to those who hold public office, so that these privileges are related to their parliamentary activities, and not any other."

"If I advocate for this in relation to any public office, it obviously also applies to the head of state," Sanchez added.

Separately, the scandal is being investigated in Geneva, as a part of the Saudi money is believed to have been transferred to accounts of Juan Carlos' former mistress, Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn.