MADRID - A Spanish appeals panel has dismissed a rape case against Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a billionaire investor and nephew of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, because of lack of evidence.
The case dates to August 2008, when a 20-year-old Spanish model filed a police complaint accusing the prince of rape on a yacht off the island of Ibiza. Alwaleed’s lawyers denied the rape accusation and provided evidence that he was not in Ibiza at the time of the alleged crime.
See: Spain Probing Saudi Rape Case
In its decision, dated Monday, the panel of three judges in Palma de Mallorca, the capital city of the Balearic Islands, said there was neither sufficient evidence to establish what happened nor facts to conclude that Alwaleed was involved.
The prince’s representatives and lawyers welcomed the ruling and said in a statement that they would pursue criminal action against the model, her mother, and her lawyers, as well as professional sanctions against the lawyers for unethical behavior.
“No one’s character should be subject to such dishonest attacks,’’ Javier Sanchez-Vera Gomez-Trelles, one of the prince’s lawyers, said in a statement.
Max Turiel, a lawyer representing the model, said he regretted the court’s decision and that “we will continue to try to find the truth.’’
In a courtroom?
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"Spanish king apologizes for elephant hunting trip" Associated Press April 19, 2012
MADRID - Spain’s king issued an apology Wednesday, saying it was a mistake to have gone on an African elephant-hunting trip during his country’s severe economic crisis.
I guess the bigger you are the bigger the beast you must murder.
King Juan Carlos said he was “very sorry. I made a mistake. It won’t happen again.’’
The 74-year-old monarch had come under scathing criticism this week after he went on an expensive safari to Botswana as both Spain and its citizens struggled amid an economic crisis that has worsened by the day. The trip - which the government had not known about - came to light when the king fell Friday and ended up needing hip replacement surgery....
I'm not for anyone ever getting injured or hurt; however, is there not just a little karma there?
Oh, I'm so relieved.
The elephant-hunting debacle came as interest rates for Spanish bonds have shot up in recent days, stoking fears it could be the next country in Europe to need a bailout.
That's the banker's way of f***ing you.
Spain is also struggling with 23 percent unemployment, the highest in the 17-nation eurozone. For many, the trip made the king’s recent comments about how he couldn’t sleep at night thinking about the country’s unemployed ring hollow.
Honestly, all the words of the elite ring that way.
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The real royalty of the times:
"Calls rise to rescue Spain’s banks; Homegrown housing bubble blamed for woes" by Stephen Castle | New York Times, April 19, 2012
LUXEMBOURG - Rising concern about the health of Spain’s financial institutions - laid low by a festering home mortgage crisis - has fed speculation that, for the first time, the eurozone’s bailout rescue fund might be needed to help recapitalize a big country’s banks....
And another E.U. domino teeters on the brink.
But it would be politically delicate for Spain or its banks to tap that money.
Spanish banks congratulated themselves a few years ago for not having invested in the US subprime mortgages that sparked the world financial crisis.
But sticking close to home posed its own perils, as the banks lent prodigiously to Spanish home buyers - helping to inflate a real estate bubble that subsequently burst.
It doesn't look as if the Spanish escaped anything.
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Update: At Least 100,000 March in Spain Over Austerity
Never saw a word in my Glob.
