Eight bowlers from Münster have been in a Majorcan prison for weeks. The holidaymakers are accused of starting a serious fire in a restaurant with a discarded cigarette butt. A report now supports this theory.
The Spanish police have submitted a fire report that further incriminates the eight members of a bowling club from Münster who have been arrested in Mallorca. This is reported by the "Bild" newspaper. The group is accused of starting a fire in the bar below by throwing a cigarette butt off the hotel balcony. The new report states that the fire was "probably caused by the throwing of a combustible, previously ignited element, such as a cigarette or something similar".
Two outlets were ruled out in the report as a possible cause of the fire. Rather, the curvature and oxidation of the roof construction indicate that an "external source of ignition" fell on the reed fringes, the paper quotes from the report. The fire had started on the thatched roof of the restaurant terrace.
The report could not clarify whether the fire was caused intentionally or negligently. The investigation of a perpetrator does not emerge from it either. "The individual responsibility of each of the accused cannot be determined, since no evidence was found that could be attributed to one of them," write the experts, according to the "Bild" newspaper.
The suspected cone brothers are accused by the Spanish judiciary of having caused the fire near the Ballermann on May 20th. In addition to the bar, the fire also damaged neighboring buildings, and two people were injured. 13 young men were arrested. Four of them were released on bail, and one bowler was able to prove his innocence. The remaining eight men are still in custody.
They are all members of a bowling club who wanted to spend a long weekend in Mallorca. The suspects face up to 20 years in prison. Her lawyer had previously doubted that a simple cigarette could suffice as a source of fire.
(This article was first published on Saturday, July 09, 2022.)
