A 30-year-old Colombian, living in Majorca in an "irregular" situation, is to be banished from the island and the whole of Spain for seven years rather than go to prison for a stabbing incident that occurred in June this year.

On the sixteenth of June, he got into an argument with another man on the Calle Randa in Palma. He pulled out a twenty-centimetre kitchen knife and stabbed the other man in the stomach. The victim took a month to recover.

He was arrested two weeks later when he was spotted by National Police officers in a bar on the Calle Manacor. Four officers were eventually involved in restraining him. Each suffered some form of injury because of punches and kicks.

The prosecution had initially called for a five-year prison sentence. The court in Palma agreed on Tuesday to reduce this by half. He was offered the banishment order as an alternative to prison. This was accepted. He will also have to pay 2,300 euros to the victim of stabbing and 150 euros to each of the four police officers.