María Barbancho represents the so-called “Kegelbrüder”, a group of German tourists charged over a nightclub fire in the Ballermann area of Mallorca in 2022, allegedly started using beer. According to Blick, Barbancho joined the defence and produced a photograph showing an unidentified person smoking on the adjacent balcony—evidence that proved decisive to the provisional release of the eight tourists on bail of €12,000 each, after almost two months in pre-trial detention. The outlet quotes her verbatim: “Wir haben alles gegeben, damit die Jungs endlich frei” (“We gave it our all so the lads could finally be free”).
Source: Blick (Switzerland), July 15, 2022 — “Ballermann-Brand: Deutsche Kegelbrüder kommen nach zwei Monaten frei”.
Proceedings have remained ongoing since then, with the investigation still pending to determine whether the fire was caused by negligence (a sentence of 1 to 3 years) or was intentional (up to 6 years), and with no trial date according to the most recent Mallorca Magazin interview. Other German outlets have covered different stages of the case.
Source: LTO, «Brand am Ballermann: Deutsche Kegelbrüder angeklagt».
Source: T-Online, «Bier als ‘Brandbeschleuniger’: Mallorca-Kegelbrüder sollen jahrelang ins Gefängnis».
Source: Stern — «Kegelbrüder kommen alle frei – Ballermann-Brand wird weiter untersucht»