A note by the witness, said to implicate Gijón.

TW

Álvaro Gijón and José María Rodríguez both denied in court yesterday that they had taken part in orgies or taken drugs, as a key witness in the "caso Cursach" has alleged.

Rodríguez, a one-time Balearic interior minister, former national government delegate in the Balearics and ex-president of the Partido Popular in Palma, stated that he had never even been to a brothel and that he had never smoked, drunk or taken drugs. The evidence given by the witness, he told reporters after the court appearance, can never be considered to be the truth.

The witness ran the brothel in the calle Lluís Martí in Palma where, according to her testimony, Rodríguez and Gijón both took part in orgies on various occasions. These were paid for by Bartolomé Cursach. Rodríguez provided the judge with 21 clinical analyses taken since 2005 to show that there was no drug use. "At some point," he said, "the truth will be known. I have collaborated with the justice system and I expect that everything will be cleared up as soon as possible."

Gijón, currently a PP member of the Balearic parliament and an ex-deputy mayor in Palma, said that the allegations of orgies were "absurd and false". He denied his participation in orgies as reward for favouring Cursach and his businesses. As far he was concerned, the witness has been lying from the outset. He wanted her to tell him the dates when he was at the brothel, but she responded that she did not have a note of the dates.

Gijón said that he had never phoned the brothel from his mobile. Moreover, the phone has been geolocated for the past five years, so it would be easy to verify that he hadn't been to the brothel. Judge Manuel Penalva produced a document which suggested he had attended the brothel and that a cost of 1,500 euros would be met by "Tolo", believed to be a reference to Sr. Cursach. Gijón argued that the document was false.