Jorge Hinojosa
THE boyfriend of a Qatari princess found dead under suspicious circumstances on the Costa del Sol claims his phone was hacked days after her body was found.
Marbella businessman Bruce Baps also claimed Kasia Gallanio, 45, was living in fear of her life over recent months.
The expat who is originally from Paris, who is adamant she did not kill herself, told the Olive Press his suspicions about her ex-partner’s involvement in her death.
Gallanio, a well known influencer with 500,000 followers, had been in a vicious custody battle with former husband Abdelaziz bin Khalifa Al Thani, 73, the uncle of the current Emir of Qatar.
Convinced of ‘foul play’, nightclub manager Baps told the Olive Press on Tuesday: “My telephone was hacked just days after Kasia was found dead.”
He continued: “And my Facebook and Instagram sites have also been hacked.”
As well as discovering that videos had been stolen, he said others had been deleted.
And he insisted he was sure she was killed by someone and added: “This comes from there, they have so much power that they can do whatever they want.”
But he didn’t wish to comment more until the official post mortem results are made public, but added that he was due to speak to the police.
“She was the most beautiful person in the world, I am sure she didn’t kill herself as she was starting a new wine business,” he told the Olive Press.
“And just the night before she was happy and sent me a picture of herself in bed. It makes no sense.
Speaking in an exclusive interview at his house in Nueva Andalucia, he added: “I hope karma will pay back the people who killed Kasia”.
He told the Olive Press how they had first met more than ten years ago in Marbella.
They became good friends, but only started to date a year ago.
Baps, who has three young children, spent a lot of time with Kasia and her three daughters, two of whom went to school in Marbella.
Above all, he said she had been very enthusiastic about her new wine business, which involved making her own wine from local Spanish vineyards.
“She was very excited about her new business and she was texting me every day about it,” he said.
However, she had recently ‘grown very concerned for the safety’ of her youngest daughter who had stopped coming to Marbella to visit her.
“She was not allowed to visit her by her dad, because he knew that she would never go back to Paris, where he lived,” he explained.
Things got worse when she was robbed of 50 luxury handbags and hit several times in the robbery at her luxury apartment in Puerto Banus.
“If I was the prince of Qatar, I would make sure my kids were safe, I would pay for security guards with all the money these guys have,” he said.
“She needs security because here in the Costa del Sol, people would always target someone like her.”
He added that she had been badly mistreated and ‘felt like she was living in jail’ when she was in Paris, living with her ex-husband.
In particular, she was really affected psychologically by the death of one of her best friends who passed away due to cancer.
“The death and dealing with the court case against her ex-husband heavily impacted her mental health,” he explained.
Being beaten at her home during the Marbella robbery, made her remember the bad treatment received by her ex-husband.
“She did not call the police in Paris when she was mistreated because the French authorities could not get into the Qatar embassy.”
Reports in Spain claim she probably died from an overdose of medication combined with alcohol on May 31.
Various packages of drugs were found at her home on the seventh floor of the exclusive Playas del Duque complex, in Puerto Banus marina.
An initial post mortem failed to conclude how she died so further studies are being undertaken at the Institute of Legal Medicine in Malaga with further tests at the Toxicology Institute of Sevilla.
The tests can determine whether any alcohol found in her body had been consumed by her or produced after her death ‘as a result of decomposition’.
Kasia, who grew up in Los Angeles had married her Qatari prince after he wooed her when she was a student in Paris.
But the pair split in 2007 and soon divorced, despite having three daughters together.
She was known as ‘la Sheiquesa’ in Marbella in a nod to her Royal links and she was good friends with Antonio Banderas, Celine Dion and Karl Lagerfeld.
READ MORE:
- Ex-wife of Qatari Royal found dead in Marbella on Spain’s Costa de Sol
- EXCLUSIVE: 84-year-old expat sat in agony for TWO DAYS waiting for treatment at scandal-hit hospital on Spain’s Costa Blanca
- EXCLUSIVE: Expats’ €14,000 medical bill because insurance company ‘wouldn’t answer phone’ after accident in Spain
