Spain’s runaway former king Juan Carlos lands in Abu Dhabi to stay in seven-star bolthole amid corruption scandal
SPAIN’S runaway former king has been pictured getting off a private jet before heading to a £10,000 presidential suite in one of the world’s most luxurious hotels.
It's reported 82-year-old Juan Carlos is staying at the seven-star Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi after conflicting claims he was in the Dominican Republic and Portugal.
Today news website NIUS published a photo of the ex monarch walking down the steps of a private jet which it said was taken at Al Bateen Executive Airport on Monday evening.
The picture showed frail Juan Carlos in a blue shirt and dark trousers and a face mask on, easing himself down the steps towards the tarmac as a man who appeared to be a member of the flight crew waited for him at the bottom.
NIUS - part of Spanish media giant Mediaset Espana - offered no explanation about how the photo was taken.
It said: “Neither Portugal or the Dominican Republic. The first destination of the former king following his departure from Spain has been the United Arab Emirates.
“NIUS has been able to confirm this with an image of Juan Carlos I getting out of a plane at an Abu Dhabi airport.
“He arrived on Monday, at the moment when this photo was taken.”
ABC claimed on Friday Juan Carlos’s hideaway was a £10,000-a-night presidential suite at the Emirates Palace Hotel.
It said he had taken a private plane from Vigo near Spain’s north-west border with Portugal on Monday with at least five other passengers including four bodyguards.
And in a detailed summary of the seven hour flight, ABC identified the jet as a £45 million Global 6500, registration number 9H-VBIG, hired from the Maltese branch of airline TAG Aviation.
It also claimed the flight path was “altered” as part of a “legal” practice adopted by footballers and other celebrities and wealthy businessmen to disguise the identity of the person on the plane.
Naming the airport it touched down at as Al Bateen Executive Airport, the first dedicated private jet airport in the Middle East and North Africa regions, it said Juan Carlos made the final part of his long journey to the government-owned Emirates Palace Hotel by helicopter.
The same newspaper claimed earlier this week the former King was staying at the luxury home of Cuban sugar magnate Pepe Fanjul in the Dominican Republic.
However, the amount of detail attached to its latest report pointed to it finally discovering the secret hideaway which has been intriguing millions of Spaniards since the start of the week.
Mr Fanjul, who is based in Florida, claimed on Wednesday in an interview with Spanish daily El Mundo: “I have no knowledge of his plans” and appeared to suggest he was not at his home in the exclusive Casa de Campo resort in the Caribbean by adding: “Juan Carlos knows he can come to any of my properties in any country whenever he wants.”
Portugal had also been put forward as an alternative destination by Spanish news website El Confidential,
Citing sources close to the Spanish Royal Family, it said earlier this week he had been taken in by the aristocratic Brito e Cunha-Espirito Santo family and was staying at an estate called Casa Grande Quinta do Peru in Azeitao.
Portugal’s president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa kept the mystery going ahead of the ABC report placing Juan Carlos in Abu Dhabi by insisting he “truly didn’t know” whether the former monarch was in his country..
Juan Carlos, whose eldest son Felipe VI became King of Spain in 2014 following the long-standing monarch’s abdication, caused shockwaves around the country on Monday by announcing he was leaving his homeland.
The news emerged in a letter to his son made public late in the day.
He wrote “Guided by my conviction I can offer the best service to Spaniards, its institutions and to you as King, I am communicating my decision to move away from Spain.
“It’s a decision I am taking with deep feeling but with great serenity.
“I have been King of Spain for almost 40 years and during that whole time, I’ve always wanted the best for Spain and for the Crown.”
He signed off the letter: “With affection as always, your father.”
His departure sparked mixed reactions with critics of the former king accusing him of an amateur attempt to protect himself and his son from the corruption scandals threatening the future of Spain’s royal family.
Juan Carlos’s lawyers insist he remains “at the disposition” of Spain’s judicial system.
His departure from Spain comes after Swiss prosecutors opened an investigation into bank accounts allegedly held by Juan Carlos in tax havens.
Spain has launched its own investigation based in part on information shared by Switzerland about cash the former king allegedly received as part of his involvement in a high-speed Saudi Arabia rail contract.
The Spanish Royal Household has so far declined to comment on Juan Carlos’s whereabouts.
The £3billion seven-star Emirates Palace Hotel opened its doors for the first time in November 2005 and is set in 1,000 hectares of landscaped parkland with 100 water fountains and 8.000 trees.
It has a near-mile-long private beach, a four mile jogging track, two swimming pools and underground parking for 2,500 cars.
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The hotel has a total floor space of 850,000 square metres, putting Buckingham Palace’s 77,000 square metres in the shade.
Tony Blair and Bill Clinton have been among the heads of state to grace it along with musicians and film stars such as Sir Elton John, Will Smith and Justin Timberlake.
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The hotel has 302 grand rooms and 92 suites. ABC appears to be claiming Juan Carlos is staying on the highest floor of the hotel, in one of the six suites said to be out of bounds to all expect members of UAE royal families.
It said Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan, Crown Prince of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, had made the hotel ‘paparazzi-proof’ with more private security following Juan Carlos’s arrival.