Thursday, March 28

Anti-corruption exonerates officials accused of favoring businessman Cursach


New movement of the Anticorruption Prosecutor in the Cursach case. Just two weeks before the start of the trial for the alleged mafia network hatched around the nightlife businessman Bartolomé Cursach, the Public Ministry has decided to withdraw their charges against six of the 23 accused of this macro-cause. Through two briefs presented before the Provincial Court of the Balearic Islands, Anticorruption bases its decision on the “lack of credibility” of the facts that were imputed to them, including those related to the role played by four officials accused of having sponsored the good progress with their resolutions of the business of the considered king of the Majorcan night.

The Cursach case: the investigation into the king of the night that puts judges, prosecutors and police in Palma in check

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More than four years after former prosecutor Miguel Ángel Subirán -currently under investigation for the alleged irregularities committed during the investigation of the Cursach case- announced his requests for the conviction of those accused in the judicial proceeding, prosecutors Tomás Herranz and Juan Carrau have limited the initial accusations to the actions allegedly carried out by several agents of the Local Police of Palma when warning of future inspections and punishing the competition of the Majorcan businessman. With this new step, as far as the Prosecutor’s Office is concerned, a good part of the accusations that until now remained standing in the framework of the case are left out of the criminal process.

Specifically, the public accusation has exonerated the director of the Tito’s nightclub -the Cursach Group’s flagship-, Jaime Lladó; the former head waiter of this establishment, Arturo Segade; another of the directors of the group and former local police officer, Antonio Bergas; the former General Director of Tourism of the Government Pilar Carbonell -who in November 2017 resigned from the position after her imputation- of her; another official of the autonomous Executive, Bernardí Coll; the construction supervisor of the Palma City Council Julián Garau and the engineer and official of the Calvià Consistory Jaime Nadal. Likewise, the criminal responsibility of police officer Miguel Estarellas is extinguished as a result of his death.

The Prosecutor’s Office accused Carbonell, Nadal and Seguí of prevarication in the exercise of their position; to Lladó and Segade, of a crime of bribery and against public health, and to Bergas, of belonging to a criminal group, bribery and prevarication.

Now, its continuity in the criminal process will depend on the pronouncement of the rest of the accusations in the Cursach case, including that of the Autonomous Community Lawyers.

In his initial letter, Subirán recounted a whole series of actions, which, among others, included cash payments, Christmas baskets, boxes of Moët & Chandon, VIP passes to the Megasport macro-gym – one of the group’s benchmark facilities, where , For years, the former president of the Balearic Government Jaume Matas frequently attended, condemned on several occasions for multiple frauds and cost overruns committed under his mandate in his commitment to macro-projects and colossal works-, sexual services, drinks and drugs that were dispensed in his establishments and nightclubs. Several of these accusations have declined over the years.

The defendants appeal for the annulment of the Cursach case based on what was investigated around those who focused on them: former prosecutor Subirán, former judge Manuel Penalva and four members of the National Police Money Laundering group, who, in parallel, They are waiting to know why specific facts should go to trial.

It should be remembered that the president of the Superior Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands (TSJIB), Carlos Gómez, concluded, in April 2021, the investigations around them convinced that Penalva and the four policemen committed the illicit act of leaking secret information to the press of the case and not acting to prevent it -crimes for which he considers that they should answer in court-.

However, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and some thirty private accusations -among them, those brought by the entertainment businessman himself and the other defendants in the Cursach case- maintain that the former investigators in this case must also be tried for, presumably, , coercing witnesses to make incriminating statements against police officers and tycoons, carrying out illegal arrests and deliberately prolonging the imprisonment of several under investigation. for the alleged illicit practices that they would have committed when they were investigating the entertainment businessman and dozens of policemen, who supposedly helped the good progress of his business.



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