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Spain: Police arrest 74-year-old after series of letter bombs

2023-01-25T11:15:08.936Z


In November, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and the Ukrainian representation, among others, received explosives in the mail. A suspect has now been arrested. According to a media report, traces also lead to Russia.


Enlarge image

Police in front of the Embassy of Ukraine in Madrid on November 30

Photo: OSCAR DEL POZO / AFP

A suspect has been arrested about two months after a series of attacks involving several letter bombs in Spain.

The 74-year-old man was arrested on the street in Miranda de Ebro, around 300 kilometers north of Madrid, reported the state television station RTVE and other media, citing spokesman for the Spanish national police.

The authorities confirmed this information on request.

At the time, the Spanish government had not ruled out that the series of letter bombs at the end of November could be connected to the war in Ukraine.

The six shipments were sent to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and the embassies of the USA and Ukraine, among others.

A defense company whose products were supplied to Ukraine, as well as Defense Minister Margarita Robles and the EU Satellite Center at Torrejón Air Force Base each received one of these letter bombs.

As reported by the media, citing the police, the programs contained homemade mechanisms with a relatively small amount of pyrotechnic material and small metal balls.

Only one shipment exploded.

An employee of the Ukrainian embassy was injured in the hand.

The incidents had raised fears that attacks and attempts at destabilization could also occur within the EU in connection with the Ukraine war.

As a result, some protective measures were tightened in Spain.

Did right-wing extremist networks play a role?

As the New York Times recently reported, citing US and European security circles, the series of letter bombs could have been carried out by a militant network acting on instructions from the Russian secret service.

According to this, possible connections to the radical group Russian Imperial Movement were examined, some of whose members are in Spain and are said to have connections to local right-wing extremist organizations there.

The Spanish authorities initially did not comment on the report.

fek/dpa/Reuters

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2023-01-25

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