Five young vacationers from Germany have to be remanded in custody in Mallorca on suspicion of gang rape. A court late Saturday evening refused to release the men on bail. A sixth vacationer from Germany, on the other hand, was released, as a spokeswoman said. First, the Spanish newspaper Ultima Hora reports that the magistrate postponed the decision in order to study documents related to the case.
In Spain, pre-trial detention can last weeks and months, in special cases even longer than a year. If convicted of rape, the men face up to 12 years in prison. The six men were handcuffed to the court in Palma de Mallorca on Saturday morning.
According to the police, a young woman in the German party stronghold at Ballermann met a man from Germany about the same age on Thursday night. She agreed to go to his hotel room with him. However, she was turned away at reception because she was not a guest there. The two then went to a nearby hotel, where five of the man’s friends stayed. When they later came to her room, four of them forced her to perform sexual acts. One of the suspects filmed the crime with his cell phone.
The woman then fled to the bathroom, police said. One of the men is said to have accompanied the woman to the hotel where her friends were staying. From there, the woman alerted the police, who arrested five men in their hotel early Thursday morning and a sixth on Friday. The young German was taken to a hospital for an examination.