Roundup: King of Spain's brother-in-law found guilty in corruption scandal, princess absolved

Inaki Urdangarin, the brother-in-law of King Felipe VI of Spain, was handed down a sentence of six years and three months in prison on Friday for his role in the "Noos" corruption scandal.

Although the younger sister of the King, Cristina de Borbon, was absolved of charges against her, she will have to pay a fine of 263,000 euros (280,000 U.S. dollars) jointly with her husband Urdangarin.

Urdangarin was found guilty of perversion of justice, falsifying documents, fraud, trafficking of influence, and two offences against the public treasury.

He is the first member of the family of a King of Spain to be condemned to prison in modern times. The sentence is well below the more than 19 years prosecutors had asked for and is open to appeal.

The Noos trial began in January 2016 and over 300 witnesses testified until July, after which magistrates needed eight months to reach Friday's decision.

As well as Cristina and Urdangarin, 15 others faced charges in the trial which investigated the dealings of the Noos Institute, a supposedly non-profit institution set up by Urdangarin and his partner, Diego Torres, who were accused of embezzling 6.2 million euros of public money.

Urdangarin and Torres were accused of using Noos to organize events and with the connivance of officials overcharging for their services and in some cases billing for events which never took place.

Some of that money was siphoned off through a company called Aizoon of which Cristina and her husband were directors.

She was accused of using company funds for personal expenses such as clothes and dance lessons for her and Urdangarin's children, as well as for work on their home in Barcelona and then passing that off as business expenses.

As a result, she faced charges of tax evasion, which she denied, insisting she knew nothing of her husband's dealings.

Although the state prosecutor refused to press charges, right wing pressure group Manos Limpios (Clean hands) alleged it would have been impossible for her to be unaware of Urdangarin's activities and used a law which allows private groups to instigate criminal proceedings to take her to trial.

During a court appearance in February 2014, Cristina famously responded "I don't know" 188 times and "I don't remember" a further 55 times during six hours of questioning.

Friday's court decision saw Torres sentenced to eight years in prison and fined 1.7 million euros, while Jaume Matas, the former president of the Balearic Islands, was given a three year and eight month sentence for perversion of justice and fraud and banned from holding public office for seven years.

Matas, Torres, and Urdangarin are the only defendants to be given prison sentences, with ten of the accused absolved of any wrongdoing.

Torres' wife, Ana Maria Tejero, was among those absolved, although like the Infanta Cristina, she too will have to pay a fine of 345,000 euros for what the court considers to be her "civil responsibility" for having benefited from the fraud.

The Spanish royal household has refused to comment about the result of the trial other than expressing its "absolute respect for the independence of the judiciary." (1 euro=1.06 U.S. dollar) Endit