Casa Real confirms that Juan Carlos I has been in the Emirates since 3 August
After two weeks of unanswered questions, the Royal House confirmed this Monday that Don Juan Carlos I has been in the Emirates since last August 3rd, when the King Emeritus sent a letter to his son Felipe VI informing him that he was leaving Spain. In a brief statement, Zarzuela said that "His Majesty the King Don Juan Carlos has indicated to the House of His Majesty the King to communicate that on the 3rd of this August he moved to the Emirates, where he remains at present".
The whereabouts of the former head of state was not known since that Monday, August 3, Zarzuela issued another communiqué in which he conveyed the decision of Don Juan Carlos I to leave Spain and take up residence in another country. A decision that he claimed to have taken in the face of the public repercussions of "certain past events" in his private life and to provide his son, Felipe VI, with the peace and quiet required in the exercise of his duties.
Since that communiqué was issued, several possible destinations had been considered after he had spent the night before in Sanxenxo (Pontevedra). For a few days he was placed in Portugal, the Dominican Republic or a hotel in the United Arab Emirates where he had already stayed on several occasions since his abdication in 2014.
The digital newspaper Nius was the first to publish a photograph in which Don Juan Carlos I was seen descending the plane's steps and placed him in Abu Dhabi, the capital of that country. Neither Zarzuela, nor the Government, nor Don Juan Carlos' lawyer had so far revealed his whereabouts. Sources of the Royal House pointed out that he should be the one to decide when to communicate it, while the Executive, with its president, Pedro Sánchez, at the head, also transferred the responsibility for this information to Zarzuela or to the father of Felipe VI.
After the communiqué of the 3rd, the lawyer of the king emeritus, Javier Sánchez Junco, issued another in which he informed that the previous head of state had given him instructions to make public that, despite his decision to move out of Spain, "he remains in any case at the disposal of the Public Prosecutor's Office for any procedure or action that is considered appropriate". The place where the king is staying has been announced on the same day that the kings are carrying out their last official activity in the Balearic Islands, a visit to Ibiza after which they will return to Palma to return to Madrid this Tuesday, 18th August.