One of the fires was in the Son Quint area of Esporles. | Ibanat

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A 48-year-old German man, accused of causing two forest fires in Esporles and setting fire to an Ibanat vehicle in the summer of 2019, faces a sentence of eight years in prison.

This coming Thursday, there will be a hearing at the Provincial Court in Palma. In addition to the prison sentence, the Prosecutor's Office will be demanding that he pays 7,751 euros compensation for the cost of firefighting as well as 905 euros for damage to the vehicle and a fine of 8,100 euros.

The accused was arrested on August 26, 2019 and was held on remand until May 17, 2020. There had been three incidents over the space of a week. On August 19, he allegedly set fire to the front tyres of a Toyota Land Cruiser belonging to the ministry of environment's Ibanat agency. The two rear tyres were punctured. This happened in a car park in Esporles.

The following morning, he caused three fires that converged into one. This was in forest in Esporles which is classified as an area of special natural interest. Some 7,120 square metres were affected. On August 25, in another area of special interest, there were three separate fires which combined and affected around 2,000 square metres of forest.