07/25/2007
Two cartoonists who drew the heir to the Spanish throne having sex with his wife on the front page of a magazine appeared Wednesday before a judge and insisted they did not mean to offend the royal family.
The cartoon, published last week in the humor magazine "El Jueves", pictured Crown Prince Felipe and his wife, Princess Letizia, and an allusion to a government proposal to boost Spain's low birth rate by offering euro2,500 ($3,450) to families for each new child born or adopted.
"Do you realize if you get pregnant, this will be the closest to real work I've ever done?'' the prince asks his wife in the cartoon. Judge Juan Del Olmo ordered the magazine confiscated, saying the cartoon was "a clearly denigrating act" that insulted the royal family.
The authors, Manel Fontdevila wrote the caption and Guillermo Torres did the drawing, appeared before the judge for two hours Wednesday and explained they had simply meant to poke fun at the idea of family aid going to a rich couple that did not need it, not to offend the prince and princess.
The judge declared his part of the probe over and said he will leave it up to prosecutors as to whether to press ahead with formal charges.
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