Spain Alleged author of letter bombs to the Ukrainian embassy

Spain: Alleged author of letter bombs to the Ukrainian embassy or to Pedro Sanchez arrested

By Le Figaro with AFP

Posted 46 minutes ago, just updated

Police trucks leave the Ciutat de la Justicia courthouse in Barcelona, ​​​​​​20. January 2023. Pau BARRENA / AFP

The letters received last December had hurt the Ukrainian ambassador. A suspect has been arrested in northern Spain.

The “suspected author” of a letter bomb salvo addressed to the Ukrainian embassy in Spain or to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez at the end of last year was arrested on Wednesday, the interior ministry said.

“Members of the National Police arrested a man of Spanish nationality on Wednesday in Miranda de Ebro (North), who is believed to be the perpetrator of the sending of six letters containing explosive material, addressed in late November and early December (…) to the President of the Government , to the Embassy of Ukraine in Spain or to the Embassy of the United States in Spain,” a ministry spokesman said in a written statement.

accused pensioner

A police source told AFP it was a “74-year-old pensioner.” The security guard at the Embassy of Ukraine in Madrid was slightly injured in the right hand on November 30 while opening one of these letters intended for the Ambassador.

Letters also went to the defense minister, to an arms company that made grenade launchers that Madrid had donated to Kyiv early in the Russian invasion, or to a key Spanish military base. The Spanish judiciary had opened an investigation into alleged “acts of terrorism”, while Kyiv had ordered increased security in all its representations.

According to the American daily newspaper The New York Times, American and European secret services suspect a Russian paramilitary group, the Imperial Russian Movement (MIR), to be behind this campaign to send out letter bombs.

This ultra-nationalist and white supremacist group, which was included in America’s list of terrorist organizations in 2020, was acting underhandedly for the Russian military intelligence service (GRU), the American daily said in an article published on Sunday. The Spanish Interior Ministry declined to comment on this information.

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