Lawyers from the international law firm Clifford Chance have filed a response to the lawsuit filed by Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein's lawyers for harassment, illegal monitoring by agents of the National Intelligence Centre (CNI) in the United Kingdom and defamation. The response states that Juan Carlos I is immune from this lawsuit because of his status as former King of Spain and former Head of State. 

We often hear members of the Spanish government (basically the Socialists) and the opposition say that Spain is a mature democracy that occupies a privileged place in international rankings. But the truth is that the announcement that the Supreme Court Prosecutor's Office is preparing to shelve investigations into the alleged crimes committed by emeritus King Juan Carlos I shows that this is not quite the case. And that, without denying that Spain is a proper democracy, it is not yet mature enough to face a trial against one of the key characters of the Transition to democracy such as the former monarch, which would surely shake the foundations of the regime of 78. The fact that Spanish prosecutors have run up against the wall of inviolability and the Spanish Treasury has accepted the regularisations of opaque wealth worth €5m made by Juan Carlos I leaves the case now only in the hands of the Swiss prosecutor Yves Bertossa.

The upcoming closure of proceedings in three investigations into the allegedly criminal activities of former Spanish king Juan Carlos I by the Supreme Court Prosecutor's Office will, according to judicial sources, leave open those kept by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office on possible corruption in international economic transactions in the awarding of the high-speed train from Mecca to Medina in 2011.