Germany Heated start to the trial into the death of a German on Mallorca

The trial against two Spaniards accused of the death of a German vacationer in Mallorca has begun with a big surprise. As the German-language "Mallorca Zeitung" wrote, the lawyer for the family of the victim from northern Hesse, Maria Barbancho, said in the opening statements that the 20-year-old was already dead when he was thrown onto a highway near the island's capital Palma on that October evening in 2022.

According to the indictment, the two Spaniards allegedly threw the 20-year-old holidaymaker out of the left door of a white van onto the airport highway at around 10.30 p.m. on October 8, 2022. The two accused had intended to kill. According to the court documents, the German had 2.41 per mille alcohol in his blood at the time. Before his death, the young man had been out with a friend on the Ballermann party mile in Palma that evening; according to the police investigation, the two then lost sight of each other.

Defense: German jumped out of the car alone

The defense of the two Spaniards explained in court that the man had jumped out of the van himself, as the newspaper "Diario de Mallorca" reported. Lawyer Barbancho vigorously contradicted this: "It was not a drunken German who fell out of the van in an accident. It was a cruel murder. There was a brawl in the van beforehand. Drivers behind the van saw the car driving strangely."

The young man had been run over by a following car while lying on the road. When exactly he died and how - this question is also likely to play a major role in the following days of the trial. The public prosecutor's office and the lawyers for the victim's family are demanding a prison sentence of 25 years each. In addition, the two men are to compensate the relatives with around 200,000 euros.

Mysterious case and difficult investigation

The death puzzled investigators for a long time: initially, the police assumed that the German man had wandered onto the highway by himself after the night of partying while drunk. "We were repeatedly told directly that this could never have been an accident," the "Mallorca Zeitung" quoted the family as saying. "He would never have walked onto a highway and laid down there."

The police eventually spotted camera footage showing the 20-year-old at the Ballermann looking for a friend who was traveling with him. Just three minutes after he disappeared from the picture, the German was run over by a car one and a half kilometers further on the MA-19 freeway towards Palma, not far from Playa de Palma, according to the investigation. The distance could not be covered on foot in that time, said Ángel Ruiz, head of the National Police's homicide unit, in October 2023.

Eyewitness provided valuable information

Shortly beforehand, his team had arrested the two suspects. In order to track them down, the investigators had to check around 100,000 license plates and traffic cameras before they came across the suspected murder vehicle - according to an eyewitness, a white van from which the German had been thrown onto the road.

The police have not ruled out the possibility that the accused wanted to rob their victim. It is not yet clear how the 20-year-old got into the van. According to the defense, the two men wanted to take the tourist to his hotel and found him on the street. But Barbancho, the lawyer, also objected: The man's hotel was only 100 meters away from Ballermann and the men had been driving in the opposite direction. She assumes that there was a fight in the van.

Death struggle in the van?

The lawyer of one of the accused defended herself against this theory during the trial: "No DNA traces of the two accused were found on the victim", she said according to the "Mallorca Zeitung". The German had never been beaten. For this reason, too, the testimony of the forensic experts is likely to be of the utmost importance in the further course of the trial.

The lawyer for the second defendant, a worker from Seville who came to the island to look for a job and was sitting in the passenger seat, also rejected the accusations. The Spaniards had only wanted to help the drunk German and loaded him into the car, the newspaper continued. On the highway, the German got out of the moving vehicle under his own power - how this was supposedly possible remained unclear. The two clients drove on to work.

Eyewitness from the highway is also expected to testify

Lawyers for the victim's family had originally said that the trial would begin on Thursday. Officers from the Guardia Civil police unit were also heard as witnesses at the start of the trial on Wednesday. The eyewitness who was driving behind the van with his partner and claims to have seen the German being thrown into the street is also expected to testify in person.

The trial is due to continue in the coming days and will last around 15 days. According to the lawyers, the victim's family wanted to attend the trial, but did not show up at least for the start, as the "Mallorca Zeitung" further reported.

SDA