On Monday at 9.45am, the trial of 23 people charged in connection with the so-called 'caso Cursach' will begin at the Provincial Court in Palma.
One of the 23 is Bartolomé Cursach, owner of the BCM club in Magalluf and of other businesses within the Cursach Group. The trial, with planned breaks, is expected to last almost ten months. Five of the accused are from the Cursach Group, fourteen are Palma police officers and the four others are (or were) officials from local authorities.
Bartolomé Cursach was arrested in February 2017. This stemmed from an investigation into police corruption. He was held in custody for fourteen months and released on one million euros bail. The prosecution had called for a sentence of eight and a half years, but a charge of bribery has been dropped and the demand is now eighteen months, principally for belonging to a criminal organisation.
The prosecution has reduced its sentence demands for some of the other accused, while it has dropped all charges against eight people - one of the eight has died.
However, there are also private prosecutions. Whereas the public prosecutor has now focused on alleged crimes in Palma, the private actions include allegations that relate to Calvia and so therefore to Magalluf and to accusations that local police and officials showed favours to Cursach businesses.