Spain’s Supreme Court dismissed charges of five tax violations against former King Juan Carlos on Monday due to a lack of new evidence, upholding a prosecutor’s 2022 exoneration of all tax violations that were found.

The case was brought by a group of former jurists who argued that only a court can exonerate an individual from criminal liability, rather than the Public Prosecutor’s Office. The Supreme Court rejected this argument on the grounds that a lack of new evidence demonstrated that, legally, nothing had changed since all criminal violations identified in the investigation were rectified.

This decision implies that Spanish courts will allow agreements with public prosecutors in tax investigations to exonerate individuals of criminal liability in future cases. Although this may encourage cooperation with prosecutors and save time during tax crime investigations, this decision risks undermining the safeguards inherent in the judicial process that protect against corruption and ensure that everyone under investigation receives a fair trial through judicial independence.

That being said, a factor in this case that appeared to be influential was the fact that three years had passed since the prosecutor’s decision was made. This suggests that in a future case with different facts, such as a challenge to a more recent decision, the court might make a different ruling.

Juan Carlos was initially investigated for tax violations by public prosecutors in 2020, but the Public Prosecutor’s Office closed the case in 2022 after Juan Carlos regularized his tax obligations by paying authorities over five million euros to account for undeclared income. The prosecutor’s decision to dismiss the case was subsequently reviewed by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office.

The investigation was triggered due to irregularities in Juan Carlos’ tax filings, which did not sufficiently account for “high-value gifts from Gulf Arab monarchies, and personal travel financed by a Liechtenstein-based foundation.”