The husband of Spanish king Felipe VI's eldest sister, infanta Cristina, Iñaki Urdangarin, is now in Brieva prison, in Ávila, Castile and Leon. He entered the centre he was expected to choose, a women's prison, at 8:15am this morning.
His arrival was discrete and distanced from media attention. The prison chosen has a special pavilion with five cells, its own courtyard, a dining room and face-to-face meeting rooms.
Despite the prison being only just over 100km from Madrid, for the moment the infanta and their four children will continue living in Geneva from where Urdangarin arrived by plane on Sunday night.
The Palma regional court gave the former duke five days to enter prison, the choice of which being left to him. The day after the Supreme Court confirmed the sentence in the corruption case, the Palma Audience directly delivered to him the relevant judicial order. Urdangarin is sentenced to five years and ten months in prison.
He has been convicted on charges of misuse of public funds, malfeasance, fraud, two tax offences and influence peddling. His former business partner Diego Torres will serve five years and eight months in Can Brians 2 prison near Barcelona for misuse of public funds, malfeasance and fraud.
Check-up and file
Once in prison, the king's brother-in-law will have to go through the standard check-in procedure for first-time inmates. He will have a file opened and a medical check-up. He will also be interviewed by a multidisciplinary team of social workers and psychologists.
As normal, the prisoner will spend his first night in the new inmates' wing, then he will be moved to a "respect" wing where he will accept the behaviour, hygiene and organisation rules of daily life in the prison.
Another "distinguished" prisoner has already been held in the same pavilion, namely former director of Spain's Civil Guard Luis Roldán. He complained about how cold it got on the Castilian plateau, even comparing it to a Siberian gulag. This isn't expected to be the infanta's husband's experience because the centre's heating has recently been renovated at a cost of more than a million euros.
Despite the king's brother-in-law having been able to choose his prison, the centre can analyse whether it is the most suitable choice, Spanish legislation giving them the right to move him if not.