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| Europe |
| 'Safe Terrorist': Elderly Marxist jailed for 'drill and drill bits' |
| 2024-07-26 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Vladimir Dobrynin [REGNUM] A Spanish court has sentenced 76-year-old Spanish citizen Pompeyo González Pascual to 18 years in prison for sending letter bombs to the Spanish Prime Minister and the US and Ukrainian embassies in November 2022. According to the local press, Pompeyo opposed Western support for Ukraine after Russia launched the SVO. And he found no other way to demonstrate his disagreement with the "united view of all of Europe" on this issue than by threatening some officials in Spain and other countries. Spain's highest criminal court, the Audiencia Nacional, found him guilty of terrorism and manufacturing explosives. The indictment, excerpts from which are cited by the online publication Infobae, states that “the former employee of the mayor’s office of the Basque city of Vitoria, now a pensioner, expressed his disagreement with support for Ukraine by sending envelopes by mail containing substances that could explode when opened by the recipient.” Letter bombs containing improvised explosive devices were sent to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Defense Minister Margarita Robles, and the US and Ukrainian embassies. The recipients also included a Spanish arms company that produces grenades, a batch of which was donated to Ukraine, and the main Spanish air force base in Torrejon. Only one of the parcels caused harm to the recipient - a worker of the Ukrainian embassy received minor injuries when opening it. Moreover, the information about this case was contradictory. Some publications claimed that someone from the embassy decided to open an envelope on the territory of the garden that had not been scanned for dangerous contents. Others - that the postal item was carefully opened by a security guard, but something went wrong and an explosion occurred. However, "explosion" is too strong a word. As it turned out a little later, something clicked in the envelope, a spark flew and the parcel caught fire. After the incident, the guard was taken to a medical facility, where they treated the cut on his finger and covered it with a bandage. All other recipients were either smarter than the Ukrainian diplomats or less curious and entrusted the opening of the "gifts" received by mail to engineers and sappers. The professionals did not have anything click or catch fire. And, of course, there were no injuries to arms, legs or anything else. The Ukrainian ambassador to Madrid, Serhiy Pogoreltsev, immediately declared the existence of a "Russian trace". And he was the only one who came up with such a crazy idea. The other addressees stated that the Spanish law enforcement officers should identify the perpetrators. Spanish investigators figured out the author-producer of the dangerous mail quite quickly. The press was unable to find out the details of the search, but law enforcement officers generously shared information with journalists that left no doubt that the villain would not escape the punishing hand of the law. During a search of Pompeyo González Pascual's apartment, operatives found a drill, bits, metal plates, screws and nuts - everything needed to make small containers filled with explosives and shot. In addition, specialists from the biochemical laboratory established that the almost invisible grease stains found on the surface of the cardboard envelopes have the same DNA structure as the skin samples of the retired bomber, who, in addition to all his shortcomings, turned out to be a fan of the Basque terrorist organization ETA and a hardened Marxist (a copy of Capital was found on his bookshelf). He was also an admirer of Dolores Ibárruri (leader of the Communist Party of Spain from 1942 to 1989) and, of course, a member of the Communist Party. This entire body of evidence allowed Spanish investigators to charge the elderly ex-communist with terrorism and making homemade bombs. However, the Basque pensioner was considered surprisingly safe as a terrorist, because before the trial he was left to walk around on his own recognizance, and not placed in a cell or even under house arrest. A court this week sentenced Gonzalez Pascual to 18 years in prison - 10 years for terrorism and another eight for making homemade explosive devices. The convicted man did not plead guilty. And during the hearing he said that "he bought the envelopes (30 pieces) on Amazon, wanted to use them to send letters to friends with congratulations, but had to throw away what he bought, because the material from which the envelopes were made turned out to be too hard and thick, unsuitable for letters." It is therefore not surprising that the discarded cardboard boxes had traces of the pensioner's hands. The person who later, obviously, found these envelopes in the garbage container could do with them as he pleased. Maybe even stuff them with TNT. There are not as few people in Spain who like to rummage through garbage cans as you might think. As for the drill and bits found on him, according to Pascual, this is the same as considering a person who has knives for cutting bread or butchering meat in the kitchen to be a potential murderer. Judging by the way the crime and punishment of the 76-year-old bomber are presented in the Spanish press, both the evidence of guilt and González Pascual's explanations appear, to put it cautiously, not solid enough. But the most interesting thing about this story is that not a single Spanish publication rushed to trumpet that since an employee of the Ukrainian embassy was injured, then “it’s Putin’s fault.” In general, it should be said that the press in Spain, as well as in other EU countries, does not favor Russia and uses any slightest excuse to demonize the Kremlin. But in the described case, for some reason, this did not happen. Perhaps because it would have looked completely comical. Spaniards are increasingly pointing out in their comments under articles in the press that they are being presented with the opinion of only one side, while they would like to see both points of view and independently understand who is right and who is wrong in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. And so the call of the head of the Ukrainian MFA Dmytro Kuleba to the embassies of all countries in Madrid to "increase security measures" was received with understanding, but without unnecessary fuss. And no one came out to demonstrate under anti-Russian slogans in Madrid's Plaza Cibeles. Even after Kuleba added that those responsible “will not succeed in intimidating Ukrainian diplomats or stopping their daily work to strengthen Ukraine.” As for the fairness or unfairness of the sentence for Dolores Ibarruri's fan, this will be decided by higher courts, where the convicted man's lawyers will send their appeals. |
| Posted by:badanov |