The Provincial Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has sentenced a man from Tenerife to 14 years in prison for considering that he manufactured an explosive that caused injuries to three of his relatives. The sentence imposes five years for the manufacture, possession and transport of the device, and three for each of the other many injuries caused to the victims, from which they must stay away half a kilometer for five years after serving the sentence and being released. .
The now convicted, Roberto A.G.G., is imposed for civil liability the payment of 10,500 euros to compensate for the consequences suffered by the injured, and the medical expenses they had to face.
The sentence indicates that the defendant took advantage of the fact that he was a locksmith and welder in a workshop in San Miguel de Abona to make a “clandestine” way and thanks to his professional knowledge, a handmade explosive device with materials from the company and others obtained for him.
The bomb consisted of a sheet metal box, with three butane gas cylinders connected to an electrical system along with a series of screws and fragments of metal rods, which would serve as shrapnel.
The man had spent the night of November 20 with his partner in a hotel in Puerto de la Cruz. In the early morning of November 22, he left with his vehicle carrying the device and went to the home of his relatives in La Matanza de Acentejo. That same day in the morning, a member of his family noticed the existence of a box that aroused his curiosity and notified his brother and his father to come to the place.
As soon as one of them broke the padlock and lifted the top cover, the bomb was activated immediately but it did not produce an explosion, but rather a deflagration, so that since the shrapnel was not projected, the damage was less. They caused second degree burns, while another of the injured suffers from anxiety, for which he has been treated with anxiolytics and suffers from mild post-traumatic stress.
The relatives declared during the hearing that they had few doubts about the perpetrator of the crime because, for a long time, especially after suffering the consequences of a traffic accident, the defendant suspected his ex-wife of infidelity with a relative of his, whom he had threatened by phone
The Prosecutor’s Office defended that it was an assassination attempt, for which it requested a 33-year sentence. However, in the ruling it is ruled out that there was a homicidal intent on the part of the defendant because there are doubts that the ultimate goal was to kill his relatives, and also there was no risk of ending his life, since it did not explode but detonated.
