Palma.A Palma judge yesterday postponed the declaration of Princess Cristina because he believes that an appeal which has been by the prosecution will not be completed before April 27, the date originally scheduled for the youngest daughter of the King of Spain to be questioned about her husband's business activities in Palma.
No new date for the hearing was immediately set, because a three-judge panel must first resolve the conflict between the view of the judge who issued the subpoena that there is sufficient evidence to cite the princess as a suspect, and the prosecutor's view that there is not, the officials said.
Prosecutor Pedro Horrach only lodged the appeal yesterday morning against Judge Jose Castro's decision to summon the Princess for questioning in connection with a corruption case, an unprecedented blow to the royal family's prestige.
The anti-corruption prosecutor said it had based its appeal on the principle of equality before the law, implying that the Princess was being unfairly treated because of her royal rank.
The imputation against a person of fact that, a priori, do not have criminal characteristics supposes at the least a discriminatory treatment, said the written appeal by the prosecutor.
On Wednesday, Judge Jose Castro summoned the 47-year-old princess to testify on April 27 in a case targeting her husband, Iñaki Urgangarin, the Duke of Palma.
The anti-corruption prosecutor asked the judge to suspend the hearing until the provincial court had a chance to rule on its appeal.
A spokesman for the royal palace had expressed surprise over the judge's decision to summon the princess, after declining to do so in March 2012.
The royal family was in complete agreement with the prosecutor's decision to appeal the decision, he said when the summons was announced.
The case, which was opened at the end of 2011, is centred on allegations of embezzlement and influence peddling against Cristina's husband, a former Olympic handball player and his former business partner Diego Torres.
The pair are suspected of over billing regional governments to stage sports and tourism events, and then syphoning off money to the non-profit Noos Institute, which Urdangarin chaired from 2004 to 2006.
The princess -- the seventh in line to the Spanish throne -- had seemed set to avoid being snared by the case.
But the judge said evidence, including emails provided to the court by her husband's former business partner, raised doubts that she really was unaware of the business operations of Noos.
Closing the case without hearing the princess, who was a member of the Noos board, would discredit the maxim that justice is equal for all, he said.
The Princess, who works as the director of social welfare programmes for the charitable foundation of Barcelona-based financial services group La Caixa, is accused of cooperating by allowing the lustre of her royalty to be used by Noos.
If the appeal fails the Princess has chosen two top lawyers, the Royal Household announced yesterday. One is Miquel Roca, a Barcelona-based former politician who helped write Spain's Constitution of 1978.
The other is well-known criminal lawyer Jesus Maria Silva. See over
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