The prosecutor of the 'Cursach case', on the verge of tears after withdrawing all the accusations: "This procedure is a total failure"

The trial for the

, the nine-year investigation in Mallorca of one of the largest plots of alleged business and police corruption in Spain, has honored its convoluted judicial history this week with an unusual outcome.

The prosecutor Tomás Herranz defended this Wednesday, in his final argument in the trial, the innocence of the defendants, and charged against the investigation of the case, directed by a judge and a prosecutor who were separated four years ago and are prosecuted for prevarication and illegal detention, among other crimes.

"This procedure is a failure, a failure in the administration of justice, a total failure," Herranz said in a speaking turn in which he spoke on the verge of tears and charged against the investigation of his predecessors.

The case was intended to demonstrate the alleged collusion of the nightlife magnate Bartolomé Cursach with local police officers in Palma to benefit the businessman's business.

There were initially 23 defendants, for whom high prison sentences were requested;

but in June, a few weeks before the start of the trial, the Prosecutor's Office reduced the charges for all of them and, finally, withdrew them.

"[The defendants] have not done anything criminal," the prosecutor emphasized.

"The change of the Prosecutor's Office [by withdrawing his accusation] is due to a minimal attempt to repair the damage," he concluded.

Herranz's emotional intervention provoked applause from the lawyers for all the accusations and the standing of Bartolomé Cursach and

of his business conglomerate, Bartolomé Sbert, sitting in the front row.

Two days before, the last accusation against them had been withdrawn, so they will be acquitted.

The trial is still ongoing only against two local police officers in Palma, to whom one of the private prosecutions charges a crime of coercion.

The prosecutor argued the reasons why he had decided to withdraw his accusation and described this procedural movement as something "extraordinary" and "serious".

"It occurs very rarely, and it is so abnormal that, for it to occur, the prosecutor has to follow certain procedures," he explained.

Among them, request authorization from the chief prosecutor, he cited.

In his words, his final report was intended to "acknowledge before the defendants that they have suffered an injustice."

Miguel Ángel Subirán, the first prosecutor in the case, and Judge Manuel Penalva, who initiated the investigation, are pending trial by the Balearic Islands Superior Court of Justice for alleged irregularities in that investigation, such as threatening the suspects.

In 2018 they were removed from the case and it was really difficult to find instructors to resume investigations centered on the owner of a

that managed the best nightclubs on the island, Pachá and BCM, on suspicion that he had local police officers paid to benefit him against competing businesses.

Among the reasons why the accusations have ended up being withdrawn, according to prosecutor Herranz, is the "unjustified use of protected witnesses", when many of them, he said, were not at risk and, therefore, should not have this formula of protection.

“We have jurisprudence that speaks of protected witnesses.

An anonymous complaint in the criminal sphere cannot be considered a complaint in the formal sphere”, he stated, to point out that a “reinforced weighting trial” would have been necessary to assess its credibility.

"A fire should be recorded in court number 12 [the one that investigated the case] this jurisprudence, on the frontispiece," the prosecutor censured.

"Whoever led the investigation of this cause in the years 2016-2017 or was unaware of this jurisprudence or made olympic contempt of it,

The prosecutor also stressed that the defenses had stated during the trial that they had not been able to see the instruction until very late.

"The legislator wants the debate to be public, he doesn't want it to be secret," he said.

“What has happened here?” The prosecutor asked himself, as his partner, the anti-corruption prosecutor of the Balearic Islands, Juan Carrau, listened.

Herranz responded by referring to the spread of "slander", in the form of a "soft breeze".

“This is what some businessmen appearing as private prosecution did when they went to the trial court number 12 [...] They reached the ears of the investigative team, judge, prosecutor and money laundering group, and whispered in their ears their version and stunned the brain of this group of researchers, who lost consciousness,

The instruction has gone on for nine years and has been very complex.

Three investigating judges have passed through it and several separate rooms have been opened.

He has also experienced moments in which it was difficult to find a magistrate to take charge of the case.

At least three were inhibited.

The fiscal accusation has been deflating little by little.

Ten days after the start of the trial, prosecutors Juan Carrau and Tomás Herranz requested the dismissal of the case for seven people and significantly varied the account of their accusation.

The sentencing request for the main defendant, Bartolomé Cursach, went from eight and a half years in prison to 18 months, for crimes of belonging to a criminal organization and prevarication.

When the trial began, 23 people sat on the bench of the Provincial Court of Palma.

Along with Cursach,

of his business conglomerate, Bartolomé Sbert, and three other workers;

14 agents and commanders of the local police of Palma;

three civil servants and a former public official.

The crimes that were attributed to them ranged from belonging to a criminal organization to prevarication, through threats or disclosure of secrets.

The only private accusation that remains in the process represents a leisure venue and only accuses two municipal police officers from Palma.

Sbert, Cursach's right-hand man, recounted this Wednesday, in the turn of the last word, how difficult these years have been: “I was about to commit suicide.

Tony knows it.

He had his hand on the railing of a bridge,” he said.

Addressing the prosecutor, he stated: “We want and accept the apology for all the pain that has been done to us because we needed those words [...] I think that his final dissertation should be broadcast on Law programs, they should talk about this case in the universities.

Those who are outside here do not know what has happened.

[For them] We are still the mafia, we are still the bad guys.

But you have been able to verify how we are as human beings, how we are at the family level and how we have been as businessmen.

From there we will rebuild.

Thank you very much".