Virginia López Negrete during the Nóos trial in Palma. | Teresa Ayuga

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporter Palma 05/09/2016 00:00
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Virginia López Negrete, the lawyer who represented the so-called union Manos Limpias in the private prosecution of Princess Cristina during the trial that resulted from the "caso Nóos", has been summoned to appear before Judge Santiago Pedraz at the national High Court on 27 September. She has been cited as under investigation for the same offences of belonging to a criminal organisation and extortion with which the president of Manos Limpias, Miguel Bernad, has been charged; he is currently in prison awaiting trial.

The background to this is that Manos Limpias and an association called Ausbanc, for bank services users, have been accused of seeking significant sums of money in exchange for dropping private prosecutions. Princess Cristina's defence has said that there was an attempt at this extortion where she was concerned.

The judge has ordered López Negrete's court appearance following the receipt of a report from the National Police's financial and tax crime unit (essentially, the fraud squad).

The trial of Princess Cristina and sixteen other accused, who include her husband Iñaki Urdangarin and a former Balearic president Jaume Matas, ended in June. The judges are still considering the evidence of the trial and deliberating their verdicts. All of the accused, with the exception of the princess and one other, were prosecuted by the state. A third accused, who was also facing a Manos Limpias private action, was absolved when the action was dropped. He became a witness.