Juan Carlos’s ex-lover 'was intimidated with book about Princess Diana's death'
Spanish agents broke into the home of the former king's ex-lover and left a book about Diana, Princess of Wales’s death as part of a campaign designed to intimidate her, UK appeal judges have been told.
According to the claim by Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, "intruders" left the book focusing on the alleged "involvement of the British and US intelligence agencies" in the death of the former Princess of Wales at her apartment in Switzerland in 2012 - a few years after she says her relationship with Juan Carlos ended.
She also alleged that shortly after finding the book, she received a "follow-up telephone call" from an "unknown person" who made an allusion to the manner in which the Princess died, said a barrister representing Juan Carlos.
“There are many tunnels between Monaco and Nice,” the person is alleged to have said in Spanish, an apparent reference to the manner in which Diana, Princess of Wales died - as a result of a car crash in a Paris road tunnel.
Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, 57, is taking legal action against 84-year-old Juan Carlos, who abdicated in 2014 and exiled himself to Abu Dhabi in 2020 after a series of financial scandals.
She is seeking damages for personal injury and "great mental pain" caused by his alleged spying on and harassing her from 2012 onward.
Juan Carlos denies wrongdoing and has begun an appeal bid after losing a High Court fight with Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, in which the judge, Sir Matthew Nicklin, ruled that the claim could go ahead.
On Tuesday three appeal judges began considering a challenge by Juan Carlos to some of the conclusions reached by Mr Justice Nicklin at a Court of Appeal hearing in London.
Lawyers representing Juan Carlos have argued that he is entitled to immunity from the jurisdiction of the English courts due to his former role as head of state.
Timothy Otty KC, his barrister, told the judges that Juan Carlos considered Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein's legal action to be "vexatious".
"He emphatically denies that he engaged in, or directed, any harassment of [Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein] whatever, and he rejects her allegations to the contrary as untrue and inconsistent with previous public statements made by her,” he said.
Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein has said that agents of the Spanish state attempted to remove sensitive documents from her files in 2012, the year in which she received a €65 million"gift" from Juan Carlos.
She has claimed that he put pressure on her to pay the money back after she refused to resume a romantic relationship with him.
