Alberto Aza and Fernando Almansa.
The Diplomat. Madrid
Alberto Aza and Fernando Almansa, two of the most well known diplomats at Foreign Affairs for their work heading the Royal Household, will have to declare as witnesses in April and May in the Nóos Trial which begins today in Palma de Mallorca.
The former was replaced in September 2011 by Rafael Spottorno, also a diplomat, in the Zarzuela, when the case had not not yet come to light, although in July of that year, a statement had already been taken from Diego Torres, partner of Iñaki Urdangarin in the Instituto Nóos, as a defendant.
The examining magistrate, José Castro took his statement on the grounds of the alleged meetings that Urdangarin and Torres had held in the Zarzuela with the then president of the Comunidad Valenciana, Francisco Camps, and the Mayor of Valencia, Rita Barberá, although he was not charged. Both Camps and Barberá will both make statement as witnesses in the case.
Almansa, for his part, was one of the people that King Juan Carlos sent to Washington in 2012 to attempt to convince Princess Cristina to renounce her dynastic rights and the Palma ducal title for the harm that the case was doing to the Crown. The younger daughter of King Juan Carlos did not acquiesce to any of the requests, and it was her own brother Felipe VI, last year, who stripped her of the title which she shared with her husband.
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80 media outlets, 20 of them international, covering the trial
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The Nóos trial will be the highest profile case to take place in Spain in the century in progress. A total of 84 media outlets will be covering the case, of which 20 are international. In total there will be 590 journalists, graphic designers and technicians following the trial.
Such a media avalanche has led to the need to find a location suitable for these circumstances and the Escuela Balear de Administración Pública, located in the Polígono Son Rossinyol in Palma, has been selected as the most adequate. Oddly enough, this building is opposite the city prison in which the accused will serve their time if eventually convicted.
The courtroom is on the third floor of the building and there will be 15 seats assigned to journalists and a total of 36 for the public, which will be distributed in order of arrival. They are all asked not to bring in any electronic device, including mobile phones, and nor will they be able to leave the courtroom except in the breaks established by the court.
The Balearic legal system has a singularity that photographs or drawings may be made in the courtroom, of the back view of defendants and witnesses only, and not of their full face or profile as occurred in the most famous causes célèbres in Madrid, Málaga and Barcelona, to give three examples. So it will be very difficult to see Iñaki Urdangarín’s or Cristina de Borbón’s face during the trial.
