Court sentences man over explosive parcels sent to Ukrainian, US and Spanish offices in Madrid

MADRID (AP) — A Spanish court handed an 18-year prison sentence Tuesday to a man found guilty of sending six parcels containing explosives to Spain’s prime minister and other government, military and diplomatic targets, including the U.S. and Ukrainian embassies.

The 76-year-old Pompeyo González Pascual received 10 years for committing acts of terrorism and eight years for the manufacturing and use of illegal explosives for terrorist purposes.

The National Court judges deemed that the man acted “with the goal of … pressuring the Spanish and American governments … into giving up their support of Ukraine in its prolonged war with Russia.”

González Pascual, a resident of the town of Miranda de Ebro in north-central Spain, was arrested in January 2023 for sending the letter to Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and to the U.S. and Ukrainian embassies in Madrid in 2022.

An employee at the Ukrainian Embassy was slightly injured while handling one of the letters.

The six letter bombs were sent in November and December of 2022 and required the intervention of bomb-disposal experts. One was destroyed after being dispatched by regular mail to Sánchez.

Letters with similar characteristics were sent to Spain’s Defense Ministry, a European Union satellite center located at the Torrejón de Ardoz air base outside Madrid and an arms factory in northeastern Spain that makes grenades sent to Ukraine.

An envelope intercepted at the U.S. Embassy’s security screening point was destroyed by a bomb squad after a wide area in the center of Spain’s capital was cordoned off.