King emeritus Juan Carlos gets legal immunity backing from British court

King emeritus Juan Carlos has succeeded in London's top civil court in stopping part of the alleged harassment case against him by his former lover.

Juan Carlos, who abdicated in favour of his son, Felipe, in 2014, is being sued by Corinna Larsen. He denies the claims.

Now the English High Court has agreed with the former king's lawyers that it cannot rule on the parts of the case prior to 2014 as Juan Carlos had the right to sovereign immunity at that time.

The Court of Appeal in London ruled on Tuesday 6 December that the former king of Spain is protected by the State Immunity Law (SIA) for the period before his abdication, in June 2014. The SIA is a law passed in 1978 by the British Parliament that excludes acts committed on British territory by heads of foreign states.

Corinna Larsen's lawyers will now have to reformulate the facts contained in the civil suit against Juan Carlos for alleged harassment and espionage. The decision of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales leaves the initial brief submitted by the 67-year-old German-Danish businesswoman, which extends her complaint until 2020, seriously flawed.

Larsen's lawyers have already had to rewrite the role of the Spanish National Intelligence Centre (CNI) in its alleged monitoring campaign against the businesswoman. That followed a ruling last March by High Court Judge Matthew Nicklin. Larsen's lawyers had to amend their claims that the actions of the then director of the CNI, General Félix Sanz Roldán, were not of a public nature in defence of the former head of state, but corresponded to the private sphere due to his friendship with Juan Carlos.

Under the SIA, two other claims from the proceedings must now be removed for the relevant period while Juan Carlos was the Spanish head of state. This includes an alleged entry into Larsen's offices in Monaco to unsuccessfully retrieve sensitive documents about the emeritus king - a covert operation that would have been carried out by the Spanish secret services.

The SIA also precludes inclusion in the legal action regarding the first visit made by Sanz Roldán to London to try to settle the return of a "donation" of 65 million euros given to Larsen by the king emeritus after liquidating a Panamanian foundation. This was the seed of the alleged campaign of harassment, according to the lawsuit.