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Spain’s PM sent booby-trapped letter as more explosives detected

Pedro Sánchez received a booby-trapped letter last week which was "similar" to one which exploded Wednesday at Ukraine's embassy in Madrid, whilst two other explosive packages have been sent to other key locations in Spain.

Published: 1 December 2022 13:00 CET
pedro sanchez letter bomb
The envelope addressed to Pedro Sánchez was sent by ordinary post. (Photo by OSCAR DEL POZO / AFP)

Security staff carried out a “controlled explosion” of the mailed item, whose “content was similar” to that found in other letters sent to the Ukrainian embassy, an air force base, the defence ministry and a military equipment firm.

The envelope, “containing pyrotechnic material” and addressed to Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, arrived by regular mail on November 24th, the interior ministry said in a statement.

On Wednesday the security officer at Ukraine’s embassy in Madrid lightly injured his hand while opening a letter bomb addressed to the Ukrainian ambassador, prompting Kyiv to boost security at its embassies worldwide.

Spain’s High Court has opened a probe for a possible case of terrorism.

Later in the evening, a second “suspicious postal shipment” was intercepted at the headquarters of military equipment firm Instalaza in the northeastern city of Zaragoza, the interior ministry said.

Experts carried out a controlled explosion of that mailed item as well.

Instalaza makes the grenade launchers that Spain donates to Ukraine.

Earlier Thursday, security forces also detected a “suspect envelope” at an air base in Torrejón de Ardoz outside of Madrid which is regularly used to send weapons donated by Spain to Ukraine.

Police were called to the base “to secure the area and investigators are analysing this envelope” which was addressed to the base’s satellite centre, the interior ministry said.

“Both the characteristics of the envelopes and their content are similar in the four cases,” it said in a statement, adding police had informed the National Court of the four incidents.

A fifth envelope with “explosive” arrived at the defence ministry in Madrid on Thursday morning, a defence ministry source told AFP.

Experts blew up the package at the ministry, the source added.

‘Terrorist methods’

Ukraine’s ambassador to Spain, Serhii Pohoreltsev, appeared to blame Russia for the letter bomb that arrived at the embassy.

“We are well aware of the terrorist methods of the aggressor country,” he said during an interview late Wednesday with Spanish public television.

“Russia’s methods and attacks require us to be ready for any kind of incident, provocation or attack,” he added.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba ordered the strengthening of security at all Ukrainian embassies, the country’s foreign ministry spokesperson said Wednesday after the letter bomb went off at the embassy in Madrid.

Russia invaded Ukraine in February in what it calls a “special military operation”, which Kyiv and the West describe as an unprovoked land grab.

In addition to sending arms to help Ukraine, Spain is training Ukrainian troops as part of a European Union programme.

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CRIME

Spain pushes Catholic Church to compensate abuse victims

Spain's left-wing government on Tuesday upped the pressure on the Catholic Church to compensate victims of sexual abuse committed on its watch.

Published: 23 April 2024 16:59 CEST
Spain pushes Catholic Church to compensate abuse victims

Unlike in other nations, clerical abuse allegations have only recently started to gain traction in Spain, once a deeply Catholic country which has become increasingly secular.

Six months ago, a first-ever official report estimated that more than 400,000 people had suffered sexual abuse by the clergy and other lay people, proposing a compensation fund be set up — but the Church declined to participate.

“I don’t think anyone would understand if the Spanish Church did not proceed as others did in countries like Ireland, France, Belgium or the United States,” said Justice Minister Felix Bolanos, referring to nations where the Church had compensated victims.

The government, he said, had “initiated such conversations with the Catholic Church so that it would meet the cost of compensating the victims of sexual abuse committed within its ambit”.

Bolanos outlined details of a plan adopted by ministers at Tuesday’s weekly cabinet which includes recommendations laid out in an October report by a commission of independent experts working under the Spanish ombudsman.

This included the creation of a state compensation fund for victims – an idea backed by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

“We would like to work with the Catholic Church,” Bolaños said, stressing that the Church had “for decades failed to offer an adequate response.

READ ALSO: How Catholic are Spaniards nowadays?

Spain’s Catholic Church has ruled out taking part in such a fund if was only for compensating victims of ecclesiastical abuse, and not to abuse victims in any setting.

“The Church cannot accept a plan that discriminates against the majority of victims of sexual abuse,” the CEE Episcopal Conference, which groups Spain’s leading bishops, said Tuesday.

The CEE had in March approved its own “comprehensive compensation plan” for victims but did not give details about how or when it would be implemented, nor did it give figures.

Victims groups have denounced the Church’s opacity and its failure to offer any reparations.

The ombudsman’s report said more than 200,000 minors had been sexually abused in Spain by Roman Catholic clergy since 1940.

READ ALSO: Spain’s Catholic bishops apologise after report of 200,000 abused

That figure rose to more than 400,000 when abuse by associated Church figures, known as lay members, was included — equal to 1.13 percent of Spain’s adult population of 39 million.

The CEE expressed doubt about the “dubious reliability” of the figures, pointing to an audit it commissioned from law firm Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo which found some 2,056 minors were abused by the clergy.

A few days after the audit was released, the CEE published its own report which was nearly 1,000 pages long, with figures which were even lower.

In its latest update on March 2, it said it had counted 1,057 “registered cases” of sexual abuse, of which only 358 had been “proven” or were “plausible” while another 60 were under investigation.

READ ALSO: Spanish Catholic Church suspends priest accused of selling Viagra

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