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Spanish King's Brother-in-Law Begins Jail Term for Corruption

Spanish King's Brother-in-Law Begins Jail Term for Corruption

(Bloomberg) -- Inaki Urdangarin, the brother-in-law of Spain’s King Felipe VI, entered jail on Monday to serve a sentence of five years and 10 months after he was convicted last year in a corruption trial on counts including fraud and influence peddling.

Urdangarin entered a prison in Brieva near the city of Avila, 100 kilometers (62.5 miles) west of Madrid, at 8.13 a.m., a spokesman for Spain’s prisons department said by phone. The center is a jail with mainly female prisoners that has a small unit for men.

Spanish King's Brother-in-Law Begins Jail Term for Corruption

A former Olympic handball player, Urdangarin is married to Cristina, the King’s sister, who was cleared by the court in the same trial last year. A Palma de Mallorca court probe focused on the activities of the Noos Institute headed by Urdangarin which received public funds and Aizoon, a shell company he owned with Cristina that received money from it.

The trial was a landmark corruption case that became a lightning rod for public anger at abuses of the nation’s elite. Earlier this month, former Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was ousted following a no-confidence vote after the National Court convicted former officials from his People’s Party for corruption.

Urdangarin was given a jail term of six years and three months by the court. Spain’s Supreme Court last week cut the sentence by five months. Urdangarin had to entered the jail before the end of Monday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Macarena Munoz in Madrid at mmunoz39@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Beth Mellor at bmellor@bloomberg.net, Charles Penty, Ben Sills

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.