This Monday begins the trial of the instructors in the Cursach case, a case investigating an alleged conspiracy between agents of Palma’s local police and the biggest nightlife businessman in the Balearic Islands, Bartolomé Cursach. Judge Manuel Penalva and Prosecutor Miguel Ángel Subirán, both retired, sit on the bench of the Balearic Supreme Court, along with four officers from the Balearic National Police. Prosecutors are seeking more than 500 years in prison for the six defendants on alleged crimes of disclosure of secrets, unlawful imprisonment, obstruction of justice and court evasions committed while they led one of the most controversial investigations in recent years on the islands.
Prosecutors accuse them of committing up to 27 alleged data leaks to the media, which later released the information as news. Also of irregularities in the investigations in the so-called Ora case, a piece detached from the main case, which the public prosecutor believes is based on the testimony of a protected witness with “completely imprecise and speculative” content.
The private prosecutors representing the entrepreneurs being investigated in the trial are also demanding hefty prison sentences, while the Supreme Court of the Balearic Islands has already required the defendants to provide a joint and several liability bond of €420,000 to counter the possible financial consequences if convicted.
The trial will take place until September in the Sa Gerreria courtroom in Palma’s old town, a location chosen to house all the parties.
The sessions will start this Monday at nine in the morning with the previous questions, for which two days will be reserved. Thereafter, the court will consider staying the proceedings in order to clarify these issues. Should the trial go ahead, it will resume on June 22 with testimonies from the main defendants.
Judge Manuel Penalva will be the first to answer questions about the indictment and allegations. Penalva, who was retired by the General Council of Justice for invalidity, faces 118 years in prison for the crime of disclosure of secrets, 15 crimes of unlawful imprisonment, two of obstruction of justice and two of judicial evasion. Prosecutor Miguel Ángel Subirán, also retired, faces a sentence of 121 years and eight months in prison for the same crimes and adds false testimony.
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After the declaration of both, it is the turn of the four officials who have reserved four sessions until June 28.
At the end of the month, witness statements will begin: first several agents of the National Police, then several journalists who followed the case to leave behind others such as the Balearic Islands’ anti-corruption prosecutor Juan Carrau. who led the trial that he was sitting on the bench, the businessman Cursach or the judge Miquel Florit who took over the investigation of the case after Penalva was deposed and who was finally convicted of confiscating the mobile phones of two journalists covering the case examined object.
The list of dozens of proposed witnesses includes several politicians from Palma City Council, businessmen and various individuals investigated in the investigation into the case. This witness phase will last until July 14th, then the trial will be adjourned to let the month of August, a day off for judicial purposes, elapse until September 4th.
From that moment, the trial with the remaining witnesses goes to the final phase and ends on September 22 or 23, depending on the speed, with the defendants having the last word.
The Cursach case was heard for several months in the Balearic Provincial Court last year. All of the defendants were acquitted after the prosecution dropped the charges against the 17 defendants, who eventually sat on the bench. Five people who testified at the businessman’s trial are required to testify in court and are convicted of alleged false testimony.