The Supreme Court of Spain sentenced a 74-year-old man to 18 years in prison — at the end of 2022, he sent 6 parcels with explosives to the Embassy of Ukraine and other agencies in Spain.
Reuters writes about it.
In addition to the Embassy of Ukraine in Madrid, Pompeo González Pascual sent parcels with homemade explosives to the Instalaza company, which produced weapons for Ukraine, the Spanish Prime Ministerʼs Office, the Ministry of Defense, the Torrejon de Ardos Air Base, and the US Embassy in Spain. Most of the parcels were destroyed in time, but Mykola Velychko, an employee of the Ukrainian embassy, received minor injuries.
The court sentenced Pascual to 10 years in prison for terrorism and another 8 years for making explosives. He must also reimburse Wieliczka €1,500.
Pompeo Gonzalez Pascual.
The court noted that Pascual acted "with the aim of creating a great uproar in Spanish society in order to pressure the governments of Spain and the United States to stop supporting Ukraine in the war against Russia." The man can appeal the verdict.
What preceded
On November 30, 2022, an explosion rang out at the Embassy of Ukraine in Madrid. At that time, an employee of the institution received minor injuries — an envelope that was sent to the embassy exploded in his hands. After that, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine instructed to urgently strengthen the security of all Ukrainian embassies abroad, and the Spanish authoritiesconsidered the explosion as a terrorist attack. Subsequently, parcels with explosives were received by several other institutions in Spain.
Already on December 2, the Ukrainian embassies in Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Croatia, Italy, and the consulates in Naples, Brno, and Krakow received bloody packages containing animal eyes.
In January 2023, the police arrested the suspect, 74-year-old Pompeo Gonzalez Pascual. He worked as an official of the city council of the city of Vitoria (Basque Country) and acted independently, he had no ties to any political or extremist group. In April 2023, he was released on bail due to his age and lack of previous convictions.