The former lover of Spain’s former king Juan Carlos told the court in Madrid about the ‘cold’ moment when she claimed that the head of the country’s intelligence services threatened her and her children by order of the monarch.
Corinna Larsen told the court Félix Sanz Roldán met her in London after her relationship with the king ended her to warn her that she could not guarantee her safety if she did not follow his instructions. She claimed that she later returned to her home in Switzerland, where she discovered a book about the death of Princess Diana and then received a cryptic call about tunnels, which she used as an allusion to the princess’ fatal accident. in 1997.
The allegations come during a one-day defamation trial by Sanz Roldán, the head of intelligence from 2009-19, against a former police officer, José Manuel Villarejo, who he said slandered him in a TV interview in 2017 in which he said Larsen’s life threatened.
Villarejo, who has been in custody since 2017 and is awaiting trial on separate charges, including extortion, money laundering and bribery, could face up to two years in prison if convicted of the defamation and another charge of a false charge.
Larsen, also known as Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, claims she was persecuted by Spanish intelligence agents after the end of her relationship with Juan Carlos, who resigned in 2014 amid a shrinking popularity. She said in her affidavit to the court in Madrid that threats were being made against her because she contained “information and documents on financial and business transactions of the emeritus king and other members of the royal household”.
Larsen testified at the Westminster Magistrate’s Court in London on Friday morning, saying she believed agents of a security firm acting on behalf of the National Intelligence Center (CNI) occupied her home and office in Monaco in April 2012 and that CNI officials intended to steal her documents, delete computer files, and install surveillance equipment.
After being asked to evacuate her home and office for five days so that they could be ‘swept’ by the agents, she complained to Juan Carlos. The next day, she received an email from a man who, according to her, was Sanz Roldán, the CNI chief, claiming it was all a misunderstanding.
She told the court Sanz Roldán saw her perform at the Connaught Hotel in London a month later at the king’s request.
“The general set out different conditions and instructions and recommendations that I should follow,” Larsen said.
“He said, unless I follow them, he can not guarantee my physical safety or the physical safety of my children. Natural [the words] terrified me. I think someone would be scared. The fact that the head of the Spanish intelligence services traveled to London to meet me was cold in itself. ”
Larsen then returns to her home in Villars-sur-Ollon, Switzerland, where she finds a copy of a book about the death of Princess Diana left on her coffee table.
Early the next day, she told the court, she received a call from an unknown number and was told in Spanish that there were ‘many tunnels between Monaco and Nice’. The phone call, Larson said, brought home ‘the reality of the threats and the danger I find myself in’.
She said she met Villarejo in April 2015 after one of her best friends told her Villarejo had information about how the CNI intended to involve her in criminal activities. It was during the two-hour meeting that Larsen told him about the meeting in the Connaught and what she described as the threats of Sanz Roldán.
Sanz Roldán denied carrying out threats when he testified on Friday, saying Villarejo’s comments during the TV interview were a lie.
“I never threatened a woman or a child,” he told the court. He said his presence in London in May 2012 was a matter of public record, but he could not say more because he was subject to the laws that intelligence works. However, he stressed that the CNI is only allowed to work in Spanish territory and within Spanish laws.
The state prosecutor dropped the defamation case against Villarejo later on Friday, but the state’s attorney did not follow suit.
Juan Carlos announced he was leaving Spain in August after a series of damaging allegations about his financial arrangements that infected the monarchy and embarrassed his son, King Felipe VI, which stripped him of his annual allowance.
Documents from Swiss prosecutors allege that Juan Carlos received a $ 100 million donation from the King of Saudi Arabia that he brought into a foreign account in 2008. Four years later, he apparently donated € 65 million of the bill to Larsen.