The trial against the judge and the prosecutor of the 'Cursach case' begins

This Monday begins the trial against the instructors of the Cursach case, a case that investigated an alleged plot of collusion between agents of the Local Police of Palma and the largest businessman of Balearic nightlife, Bartolomé Cursach. On the bench of the High Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands sit magistrate Manuel Penalva and prosecutor Miguel Ángel Subirán, both retired, as well as four officials of the National Police of the Balearic Islands. The prosecution claims for the six defendants more than 500 years in prison for alleged crimes of disclosure of secrets, illegal detention, obstruction of justice and judicial prevarication committed during the time they were in charge of one of the most controversial investigations in recent years in the islands.

The prosecution accuses them of committing up to 27 alleged data leaks to media outlets, which then published the information in the form of news. Also of irregularities in the instruction of the so-called Ora case, a piece detached from the main cause that the Public Prosecutor's Office considers to be based on the statement of a protected witness with a "completely unspecific and speculative" content.

The private accusations, which represent the businessmen investigated during the process, also claim high prison sentences, while the High Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands has already asked the defendants for a joint and several civil liability bond of 420,000 euros to face the possible economic consequences in case of being convicted.

The process will be held until September in the courts of Sa Gerreria, in the old town of Palma, a place that has been chosen to accommodate all the parties involved.

The sessions start this Monday at nine o'clock in the morning with the previous questions, for which two days have been reserved. From there, the court contemplates suspending the trial to decide on those issues. If the hearing continues, it will resume on 22 June with the statements of the main accused.

Judge Manuel Penalva will be the first to answer the prosecution's questions and the accusations. Penalva, retired by the General Council of the Judiciary for incapacity, faces 118 years in prison for a crime of revealing secrets, 15 crimes of illegal detention, two of obstruction of justice and two of judicial prevarication. Prosecutor Miguel Ángel Subirán, also retired, faces a sentence of 121 years and eight months in prison for the same crimes and adds, in addition, one of false testimony.

After the declaration of both, it will be the turn of the four officials, who have reserved four sessions, until June 28.

At the end of the month the statements of the witnesses will begin: first several agents of the National Police, then several journalists who followed the case, to pass others such as the anti-corruption prosecutor of the Balearic Islands, Juan Carrau, who exercised the accusation in the trial that sat on the bench to the businessman Cursach or the judge Miquel Florit, that he took over the investigation of the case after Penalva was removed and that he ended up convicted of seizing the mobile phones of two journalists investigating the matter.

The list of dozens of proposed witnesses includes several politicians from the Palma City Council, businessmen and several people who were investigated during the investigation of the case. This witness phase will last until July 14, when the process will be interrupted to let the month of August, unworking for judicial purposes, pass until September 4.

From that moment, the trial will face its final phase with the remaining witnesses and will conclude on September 22 or 23, depending on the agility, with the last word shifts of the accused.

The Cursach case was tried in the Provincial Court of the Balearic Islands for several months last year. All the defendants were acquitted after the indictments dropped the charges against the 17 defendants who eventually sat in the dock. Five people who testified as witnesses during the process against the businessman are pending to testify in court accused of alleged crimes of false testimony.