MADRID – A 74-year-old Spanish man arrested over a spate of letter bombs despatched to establishments together with the prime minister’s workplace and the Ukrainian Embassy in Madrid in late 2022 was making an attempt to stress Spain to drop its assist for Ukraine, an investigating Justice of the Peace stated on Friday.
Pompeyo Gonzalez Pascual is below formal investigation over two attainable aggravated terrorism costs and 4 terrorism costs, the Justice of the Peace stated throughout his first courtroom listening to, in response to the courtroom paperwork launched on Friday. He was ordered to be detained pending any formal costs and additional hearings.
The suspect used Russian messaging apps similar to VK and the Swiss end-to-end encrypted e-mail service Protonmail, which might point out a threat of him fleeing to Russia, the Justice of the Peace added.
His on-line historical past included Russian state media RT and Sputnik in addition to Spanish-language web sites about weapons and chemistry.
Nonetheless, the proof suggests Gonzalez acted alone, the decide wrote. He stated the suspect’s alleged actions confirmed his intent to change the general public peace and to offer the impression they had been carried out by folks with ties with Russia as retribution for Spain’s and the USA’ assist for Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion of the nation.
“There isn't a indication that the particular person below investigation belongs to or collaborates with any terrorist gang or organised group,” the assertion stated.
In response to the decide, among the many gadgets discovered within the police search of Gonzalez’s house had been varied cylindrical rods that will correspond to the identical sort of cylinders that housed the incendiary pistons within the home made explosive units. There have been additionally screws and is derived much like their “firing pins” and precision drills much like these used to make them.
To make the units, Gonzalez used Amazon to purchase a few of the supplies, together with potassium nitrate, a cable with a wick, switches, copper filaments, and incandescent bulbs, the paperwork from the closed listening to confirmed.
Gonzalez was arrested in a police operation dubbed Konvert – which suggests envelope in Russian – in Miranda de Ebro in central Spain on Jan. 25.
He's accused of sending at whole of six parcels with explosives between Nov. 24 and Dec. 2 to numerous Spanish and diplomatic establishments within the nation. Along with the Ukrainian Embassy and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s workplace, they had been addressed to the U.S. Embassy, the Defence Ministry, an air pressure base and a weapons producer.
Most had been defused, though an worker on the Ukrainian embassy was barely injured when one ignited. Investigators have concluded that at the very least three of the parcels had been despatched from Burgos, close to Gonzalez’s house, police stated in an announcement on Friday.
The decide stated police had been capable of monitor down Gonzalez by tracing again the stamps on the envelopes, a few of which might solely have been purchased in a small variety of retailers in Burgos.
Gonzalez used to work for the city corridor of the Basque capital Vitoria-Gasteiz earlier than retiring in 2013, a metropolis spokesperson stated.
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