The National Court sentences the pensioner who sent explosive letters to Moncloa and other institutions to 18 years in prison

The National Court has sentenced the Burgos retiree Pompeyo González to 18 years in prison. In 2022 he was arrested and prosecuted as the author of sending explosive letters to several institutions, including the Moncloa Palace, the Ministry of Defense, the United States Embassy and the Ukrainian Embassy.

In a ruling, reported by Europa Press, the judges sentenced the pensioner to 10 years in prison for the crime of terrorism and 8 years for the crime of manufacturing, possession, placement and use of explosive, flammable or incendiary devices for terrorist purposes.

The prosecution requested a sentence of 22 years for the crime of terrorism resulting in injuries and for the crime of manufacturing, possession, placement and use of explosive, flammable or incendiary devices for terrorist purposes. The Association of Victims of Terrorism (AVT), for its part, requested a 24-year prison sentence.

The accused, aged 74, is a retired civil servant from Vitoria City Council who had worked as a gravedigger at the cemetery. One of the bombs sent by Pompeyo exploded and injured the hand of a worker from the Ukrainian embassy, ​​who was on sick leave for 30 days.

In a search of his house, screws, rods and drills with precision bits were found, identical to those that should have been used to make the devices. Pompeyo also owned a drone capable of carrying explosive loads. Before the judge of the National Court, he denied his participation in the events, which is supported, however, in addition to the findings, by the coincidence of the DNA profile found in the envelopes of the devices that did not explode and in the garbage that the agents were photographing and collecting several days after Pompeyo threw it away.