Mail-bomber asks for release to work on appeal
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/04/2019 (2386 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
A convicted bomber who caused an explosion that severely injured a Winnipeg lawyer is asking to be released from prison pending his appeal.
Guido Amsel’s request was delayed Thursday so a Court of Appeal judge can review the reasons for his sentencing and conviction before hearing Amsel’s argument on why he should be released. The 52-year-old former autobody mechanic is serving a life sentence for trying to kill his ex-wife and local lawyers with mailed explosives.
Speaking in court Thursday, Amsel said he wants to work on his appeal at home, under reasonable conditions.
“I’m looking for release, to get released on bail,” he said.
His hearing has been adjourned until later this month.
Amsel was sentenced in November 2018 on several charges, including four counts of attempted murder, and filed his appeal less than two weeks later. He is asking Manitoba’s top court to overturn his convictions. He claims he is the victim of a justice system conspiracy.
After a lengthy trial in Winnipeg’s provincial court, Amsel was found guilty of mailing three explosive packages to his ex-wife, Iris Amsel, her lawyer, Maria Mitousis, and the lawyer Guido Amsel had employed while he and his ex-wife were engaged in a civil court dispute related to their former business partnership at a local autobody shop.
After they dissolved the partnership, Amsel still owed his wife $40,000, and she took him to court.
An explosion at a River Avenue law office on July 3, 2015, caused Mitousis to lose her right hand. Winnipeg police tracked down two other homemade bombs soon afterward, and the devices exploded while they were being handled by police bomb robots.
Amsel was also convicted in a December 2013 explosion outside his ex-wife’s home that resulted in no injuries and went unsolved until after his arrest for sending the explosives through Canada Post almost two years later.
When she sentenced him last fall, provincial court Judge Tracey Lord noted the domestic-violence roots of the case and said Amsel targeted lawyers simply for doing their jobs.
“The proper discharge of their professional responsibilities within the justice system was taken and distorted by Mr. Amsel to fit neatly into the conspiracy he already believed about his ex-wife,” she said at the time.
