Manuel Penalva, the investigating judge in the Palma police corruption and Cursach cases, is to bring to trial a nephew of Tolo Cursach and a Romanian citizen, who are both accused of having threatened witnesses.
A woman who denounced the nephew told the judge that he went to her home, a flat that she was renting from him, and asked her if she thought she was safe. "We know everything," he said and implied that things would not end well for her. The Romanian, it is alleged, threatened a former employee at Tito's nightclub in Palma, who had accused him of taking prostitutes to the club who were for local police officers.
Meanwhile, BCM Disco Empire SA, the Cursach company which owns the Magalluf club, is demanding compensation of 6.1 million euros from Calvia town hall. This is in respect of damages caused by the club's closure, which the company says is "clearly wrong and erroneous". It is directly quoting the words of the University of the Balearic Islands law professor, Avel.lí Blasco, who believes that the closure order doesn't stand up legally. The amount claimed corresponds to the April-October period and to lost revenue.
The town hall says that it respects Blasco's report but is sticking to its guns in insisting that the reasons for ordering the club's closure were correct. Andreu Serra, the spokesperson for the town hall, says that he can't understand why there is resort to the courts when there is a simple solution: which is to rectify deficiencies with the cooling towers at the club.
These are just the latest developments among the twists and turns of the Cursach affair. Earlier in the week, the director of Palma prison, María Jesús de Dios Corchero, denounced Vicente Francisco Campaner, Cursach's lawyer, to the Balearic prosecution service. She also filed a complaint with the Majorcan College of Lawyers (i.e. Bar Council). Campaner, she said, had attempted to communicate with Cursach and Tolo Sbert without meeting the necessary legal requirements. She also said that Campaner had behaved in an aggressive and hostile manner towards the prison's management and security.
In addition to this, there is growing pressure on the former anti-corruption prosecutor Pedro Horrach, who filed a lawsuit against Calvia's mayor, Alfonso Rodríguez, earlier this week. Horrach has taken up the case of the ex-director of commercial affairs at the town hall, Jaime Nadal, who was dismissed by Rodríguez and was arrested last week, suspected of having favoured Cursach businesses. Questions have been asked about Horrach's compatibility as a defence lawyer, given his former status.
It has now emerged that a witness has testified to Judge Penalva and told him that he had three interviews with Horrach when he was a prosecutor. During these, he explained "irregularities" that had been committed in order to favour Cursach and identified Jaime Nadal as one of those who had allegedly been committing them.
In yet another development, Pepe Tirado, the president of the Acotur tourist businesses association, who was arrested three weeks ago, was released from prison yesterday. Judge Penalva had believed that he might influence witnesses because of the alleged closeness of both him and Acotur to Tolo Cursach. After his release, Tirado said that the accusations were untrue. He has been ordered to surrender his passport, to not leave the country and to report to the court at set times.
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If you think corruption in Spain is rife..................wait until the EU starts to unravel!
Most likely to be able to pay his legal fees.