Palma City Hall of the PP, under the leadership of the mayor Jaime Martinez, was decorated this Friday in the afternoon to the anti-corruption prosecutor Tomás Herranz, who tearfully exonerated the businessman from Mallorcan nightlife. Bartolomé Cursach of the 16 crimes for which he was tried. The awards ceremony took place in the Plaza Mayor in Palma. There he was delivered, to the applause of the public, the Police Merit Cross with white badge, a badge awarded on the proposal of the citizen security zone which was approved during the municipal plenary session. The popular mayor himself presented him with this distinction.
In November 2022, Herranz exonerated Cursach and the twenty accused in this legal case in which all the accused were acquitted – including a dozen officers of the local Palma police -, with the protagonist one of the most surreal scenes remembered in court when he started crying while apologizing to the businessman for accusing him.
Herranz then accused Cursach of several crimes to become your biggest defender and, at the same time, as the accuser of the investigators of the case, Judge Manuel Penalva and Prosecutor Miguel Ángel Subírán. He accused them of the crime of failure to prosecute an offense of revealing secrets, in a degree of criminal continuity, obstruction of justice and coercion, among others.
Before letting Bartolomé Cursach escape, prosecutor Tomás Herranz omitted in an incomprehensible way During the trial, all evidence revealed the favorable treatment he received from the police and Palma City Hall officials, in exchange for gifts such as cash, bottles of Moët & Chandon or free VIP passes to its Megasport gym.
Today, the Palma City Hall, led by the mayor of the PP, Jaime Martínez, awarded Herranz the Police Merit Cross with a white badge. It is about a distinction which rewards agents who have distinguished themselves through meritorious actions in particular the defense of the rights and freedoms of citizens. Likewise, it can be granted to institutions or individuals who have collaborated in a demonstrable and permanent manner with the local police of Palma or who, punctually and in cases of emergency, “have demonstrated value or predisposition to citizen aid”.
We do not know if among the merits highlighted by the citizen security advisor, Michel Busquetspresenting this award to Herranz includes the fact that rejected more than a hundred pieces of evidence and refused to interview fourteen key witnesses in the Cursach case. All this in a trial where the night businessman was released although he was initially accused of crimes as serious as belonging to a criminal organization, bribery, extortion, threats, crimes against the Public Treasury, money laundering, influence peddling, homicide, corruption. minors or illegal possession of weapons.
Prosecutor Herranz not only exonerated Cursach, but during the businessman’s trial he ended up accusing the instructors in charge of the case against him. asking for more than 100 years in prison against them.
THE 16 crimes that weighed on Cursach This involved drug trafficking, corruption of minors, membership in a criminal organization, bribery, extortion, threats, coercion, use of privileged information, to the public treasury, money laundering, influence peddling, falsification of documents, procedural fraud, providing false trial documents, illegal possession of weapons and crimes against workers’ rights.
what was it one of the biggest macro causes of corruption – with over four years of investigation– became almost magically a merciful acquittal and a failure of justice. The Mallorcan businessman and nightlife mogul, whose surname gave its name to the cause, and managing director of the Cursach Group, Barthélemy Sbertwere acquitted after being the main accused.
Former judge Manuel Penalva and former prosecutor Miguel Ángel Subírán, the first instructors in the Cursach case, were initially sentenced in November 2023 to nine years and one day in prison, with a maximum compliance limit of 7 years and 6 months, for obstruction of justice and coercion of the former PP councilor of Palma Álvaro Gijón. A sentence still pending resolution of the appeal presented to the Supreme Court.
Besides Herranz, they also received this same police distinction Cristina Adab, doctor of 061; Maria Adela Carrenoinspector of the National Police; the Palma fire officer Jaime CrespíAnd Miguel Antonio Suárez Garcia, retired chief inspector of the national police.
