After nine years of investigations, three investigating magistrates, several one-offs and dozens of investigations, the trial in the Cursach case begins this Monday, which involves nightlife magnate Bartolomé Cursach’s alleged collusion with agents of Palma’s local police on behalf of the company . 23 people are sitting on the bench in Palma’s provincial court on Monday, including Mallorcan nightlife businessman Bartolomé Cursach, for whom prosecutors are asking for 18 months in prison on charges of belonging to a criminal organization and subterfuge. Along with him, Bartolomé Sbert, number two in his business conglomerate, and three other workers are charged; 14 agents and commanders of the Palma Local Police; three officials and one former official. The defendants are charged with a variety of offenses ranging from belonging to a criminal organization to subsistence through threats or disclosure of secrets.
The parent, who is now being prosecuted, sat in provincial court for two years awaiting trial. Ten days before the hearing began, prosecutors Juan Carrau and Tomás Herranz modified the indictment requesting the dismissal of seven people and varied the statement of their charges significantly, leaving out some episodes of those dealing with the Detection. The sentence for the main defendant Bartolomé Cursach was increased from eight and a half years to 18 months. Miguel Ángel Subirán, the first prosecutor in the case, and Judge Manuel Penalva, who also opened the investigation, are before the Balearic Supreme Court over alleged irregularities in that investigation.
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The trial will focus on the episodes involving the local police’s so-called Green Patrol agents, who were in charge of patrolling recreational areas, and the alleged episodes of repeated unmotivated inspections of nightclubs. “These decisions were arbitrary and unjustified,” the prosecutor’s letter said, separating the agents’ actions from an attempt to harm businessmen with businesses that were in direct competition with Cursach.
Prosecutors have buried a number of events by confirming the “lack of credibility” of the facts, as many of the witnesses on whom the stories were based were charged with false testimony. The allegations of suspected parties by police officers with drugs and prostitutes in one of the reserved areas of the Ccause discotheques were excluded from the proceedings. Also the investigation into an alleged speeding up of licenses for the businessman’s business by a high-ranking Balearic government official, which revealed he had never taken a decision on the matter.
During those years, the businessman has maintained his characteristic reticence towards the public, punctuated by an appearance on a parliamentary commission in 2015 and his arraignment in a investigative court for unlicensed gun possession, a crime for which he was ultimately responsible and sentenced to eight months in prison sentenced.
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In the course of the investigation, Cursach spent 13 months in provisional detention, which would be deducted from a hypothetical sentence for the case now being pursued. The regional court has reserved around 150 sessions until April next year for the latest attack on Bartolomé Cursach.
The case began nine years ago with an investigation into a series of irregularities in promotion competitions within Palma’s local police. Investigations progressed and eventually narrowed down to a group of agents allegedly dedicated to harassing nightclubs in the city’s most touristy areas. Unexpected raids, surveillance work, threats, and even requests for sexual favors are some of the actions prosecutors attribute to this group of accused agents.
A guide full of incidents
The case began in 2009 in the hands of an investigating judge and just a year later ended up at the table of Judge Manuel Penalva and Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Miguel Ángel Subirán. The investigation was rushed and several separate pieces were born out of the main cause, which is now being brought to justice and which involved politicians from Palma City Hall, who were later exonerated after the case was filed against them.
Dozens of witnesses and investigators paraded through the court during the investigation, some of whom ended up with provisional prison sentences. Following allegations of irregularities against the judge and prosecutor, the matter was placed in the hands of a third judge, Miquel Florit, who was deposed months later after ordering the intervention of two journalists’ mobile phones to try and fix the leaks to examine the secret summary.