Public Is King Juan Carlos above the law? The example of the Queen of England Other opinions More opinion columns Now on the front page

The culprit is always the butler; Sherlock Holmes and Miss Marple tell it in their novels, and it was confirmed in the 2002 trial for theft of Paul Burrel, Princess Diana's butler. Burrel was acquitted of the robbery charges, however, he was guilty of provoking a constitutional crisis by trying to call Queen Elizabeth II as a witness (not accused), before the court that judged him. An unprecedented attempt in modern UK history. Is the queen above the law? If the head of state represents the law, can she summon herself? How far does the immunity of the head of state go? Questions that the British asked themselves and some are still unanswered.

The Spencer family accused Paul Burrel of appropriating 310 objects (photos, cassettes, bags, records, clothing, an Indiana Jones-style whip, negatives from the pre-digital era, letters, etc.). The butler was arrested in January 2001, his house was searched, the allegedly stolen items were seized and he was released on bail. On leaving the police station in one of his appearances, he was attacked by an enthusiastic monarchist who called him a "thief". Burrell claimed that the alleged mutiny had been given to him by Diana, who died in August 1997, in gratitude for his loyal service. She called him "my rock". This is how the case went from the indictment in January 2001 until the trial opened in October 2002. During two weeks of hearing, the mother and sister of the dead princess and other witnesses aired family troubles in court. The most daring media valued the allegedly stolen objects at millions of pounds. The image of the faithful butler, turned into a traitor.

After two weeks of trial came the big surprise. A few days before Burrel was to testify as a defendant he remembered, in a stroke of luck, informing the queen, in a private conversation after Diana's death, that he had the objects at home for safekeeping. If he declared that she had told the head of state, they would summon her to verify it. Isabel II, who had not spoken this mouth is mine on the subject in almost two years, also remembered, in a sudden exercise of memory, the private conversation with the butler five years before. The queen's possible amnesia became a matter of national talk, saved the constitutional crisis and resolved the conflict of the sovereign's immunity to appear before the law. On November 1 (Day of the Dead in other places) 2002, the trial was annulled, the mayordomo acquitted and the inviolability of the head of state remained intact. The skills and subtleties of the English legal profession and the judiciary sharpened their understanding to the maximum to get out of the quagmire they had gotten into.

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— tana rufer Mon Apr 18 22:15:54 +0000 2011

The recent preliminary hearing on the immunity of Juan Carlos I to be tried in the English courts (Scotland has transferred the powers of Justice) has removed the foundations of international jurisprudence. The lawyers of the two parties - Corina accuses, the emeritus defends himself - have attended the few immunity cases resolved in the London courts. The most relevant has turned out to be that of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet 20 years ago. Closer in time was that of two Saudi princes and one from Qatar. All were denied immunity. The national case of the butler has not been considered. Yes, Prince Felipe, husband of Elizabeth II, has entered the equation for having received a traffic ticket. There was no immunity for him for this offense.

British Justice is strict with the independence of politics. The five judges who stripped Pinochet of his immunity had seen Margaret Thatcher visit him in a house in the Wentworth (Virginia Water) housing estate near London. Ella Thatcher publicly thanked her for having left her bases in Chile to land British planes in the 1982 Falklands War against Argentina. If the former prime minister made the visit to put pressure on the five judges, they issued the sentence against Pinochet unanimously: tricks of the British task. The process against the former dictator established jurisprudence, since it was the first in which the Prosecutor's Office of a State (Spain) requested the extradition of a former Head of State from a second (Chile) to a third (United Kingdom).

The highest hierarchy of the British Justice handled the case rigorously and independently. There were no reviews. Now, with the king emeritus's immunity from trial in the same courts, the ground appears fertile. Pinochet escaped extradition for reasons of age (84) and health. Could it apply to Juan Carlos? In the case of the emeritus, reasons for the alienage of the accused, the accuser and the place where some –not all- of the alleged crimes were committed (harassment, defamation and illegal surveillance) could also be considered. Judge Matthew Nicklin weighs his options; he would point out that the English courts have no jurisdiction over foreign nationals who commit wrongdoing on foreign soil. In any case, Corinna has filed her civil lawsuit that does not carry prison sentences and requests the reservation of criminal proceedings. The judge's decision will be known in the coming weeks. Unless some innocent or traitorous butler comes along with some new evidence that invalidates the closed hearing on Tuesday.