MADRID, June 12 (Xinhua) -- The Spanish Supreme Court has confirmed on Tuesday jail time for the Spanish King brother-in-law, Inaki Urdangarin, local media reported on Tuesday.
Urdangarin lost the appeal as the court maintained the prison sentence although reducing it from six years and three months to five years and 10 months after considering unproved that Urdangarin had forged public documents.
The previous sentence by a provincial court in the Balearic Islands (east Spain) found the king's brother-in-law guilty of offenses against the public treasury, perversion of justice, falsifying documents, trafficking of influence and fraud.
The corruption case, called 'the Noos case' involved more than 300 witnesses, including the the King's sister, Cristina de Borbon, who became the first member of the Spanish Royal family to be questioned in court.
The Noos Institute was a non-profit organization set up by Urdangarin and Diego Torres that supposedly organized sport events overcharging for their services and even billing for events that never happened.
Diego Torres has also seen his sentence reduced from over eight years to five years and eight months.
They were accused of diverting around 6.2 million euros (7.3 million U.S. dollars) of public contracts to private accounts, while using another company, Aizoon, where Cristina was a member of the Board of Directors, to channel part of those funds.
After the Supreme Court decision, Urdangarin could appeal to another court, the Constitutional Court. If the appeal is accepted, the Court could still send Urdangarin to prison or let him remain free until reaching a decision. (1 euro=1.18 U.S. dollars)
