The appearance of Princess Cristina at the Nóos trial on Thursday evening has led the Manos Limpias (Clean Hands) union to consider taking legal action for slander against the princess's lawyer, Pau Molins.
Manos Limpias has taken a private prosecution against the princess which has not been supported by the state prosecutor. Its lawyer, Virginia López Negrete, asked numerous questions of the princess, none of which were answered as the princess reserved her right to silence and to only answer questions from Molins. In the course of the princess's appearance, however, Molins made an intervention in which he sought to stop the questioning, which he described as "impertinent".
He has now accused Manos Limpias of being from the "far right" and has questioned where the funding has come from for the union to conduct its prosecution. "This costs a lot of money," he told a radio station, adding that there were "irregularities" in the questioning and that "no one knows who is behind" Manos Limpias.
In a statement Manos Limpias accuses Molins of a lack of professionalism and of encouraging the media to investigate its financial support for the prosecution. It also states that it is exercising a right to bring such a prosecution in the general public interest, as is noted under the Constitution. It adds, therefore, that the public prosecutor does not have "the monopoly on the defence of legality and the public interest". Observations made by Molins were, therefore, "improper".
Molins has also said that the judicial system should impose a limit (to the scope of the type of prosecution being brought) as the system is there to protect. He suggested that this was not the case with Nóos, but added that if the princess is absolved, then Manos Limpias should be liable to pay costs for something "very serious that it has done".