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Man charged over US mail bombings

By Mutala Yakubu
Man charged over US mail bombings
Man charged over US mail bombings
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A 56-year-old man has been arrested in Florida in connection with a mail-bombing campaign aimed at critics of US President Donald Trump.

US officials named the man as Cesar Sayoc. He faces five charges including mailing explosives and threatening ex-presidents.

Mr Trump said the acts were "despicable and have no place in our country".

Fourteen items have been sent in recent days to figures including ex-President Barack Obama and actor Robert de Niro.

Two were found in Florida and New York City on Friday morning.

Later, two more were discovered in California. Billionaire and Democrat donor Tom Steyer said that a package sent to him had been intercepted at a mail facility in Burlingame, and another addressed to Democrat Senator Kamala Harris was reported in Sacramento.

The incidents come less than two weeks before the US mid-term elections, with politics highly polarised.


What do we know about Cesar Sayoc?

Law enforcement agencies said Mr Sayoc lives in Aventura, Florida.

In 2002, he was arrested for making a bomb threat in Miami-Dade County, and received one year of probation for the charge.
Mr Sayoc has a criminal record dating back to 1991 in Broward County, according to clerk records. He was arrested, aged 29, on a theft charge. He has also faced charges of fraud and battery.

Court records show Mr Sayoc filed for bankruptcy in 2012 while he was living with his mother. A handwritten note in his bankruptcy report reads: "Lives w/mom. Has no furniture."

In 1980, he spent three semesters as a student at Brevard College in North Carolina, a university spokeswoman told BBC News. He did not graduate, the spokeswoman added.

Following his arrest, US TV broadcast live images of a white van, said to belong to Mr Sayoc, being loaded on to a trailer in Plantation and towed away for examination.

The van's windows were covered in images. One piece of artwork depicted President Trump standing on a tank and another showed Hillary Clinton with a bullseye superimposed on her face.

Twitter and Facebook accounts in the name of Cesar Altieri and Cesar Altieri Randazzo respectively, believed to be used by the suspect, have been taken down.

Source: bbc