Ex-wife of accused bomber testifies about explosion at her home

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This article was published 21/11/2017 (2628 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Defence lawyers for a Winnipeg man accused of sending bombs through the mail zeroed in on someone they say could be an alternate suspect: his ex-wife.

During 51-year-old Guido Amsel’s attempted murder trial Tuesday, Iris Amsel testified against her ex-husband — and wound up fielding accusations she was the bomber.

Painting a picture of an ex-wife who was upset her husband divorced her and got remarried a year later to a woman 17 years her junior, defence lawyer Saheel Zaman suggested Iris Amsel mailed explosive packages to herself, her lawyer and Guido Amsel’s lawyer, and that she caused an explosion at her own home.

“I’m going to suggest to you that you were upset with Guido Amsel, and that you were upset that you had been accused of stealing money from the business that you jointly shared with him for a period of years,” Zaman said during his cross-examination of the witness.

“That is not correct,” Iris Amsel replied.

“And I’m going to suggest that you decided to do this so that he wouldn’t be in a position to try to go after you for the money that you took from the business.”

“That is not correct.”

Under questioning from Crown attorney Chris Vanderhooft, Iris Amsel denied knowing how to build a bomb and said she never mailed any explosive packages.

Guido Amsel has pleaded not guilty to five counts of attempted murder and explosives-related offences.

He’s on trial before provincial court Judge Tracey Lord, who has already heard from more than 30 witnesses about three explosive packages delivered through the mail in July 2015 while the couple was embroiled in a legal dispute over their autobody business.

Her lawsuit against Guido Amsel, nearing a resolution when the bombs were mailed, stalled afterward, Iris Amsel told court Tuesday.

She shed some light on the couple’s legal troubles, which were precursors to the explosions in December 2013 and July 2015.

She testified she met Guido Amsel in Germany in 1985, while he was serving in the German military. They married three years later. She had visited a relative in Canada and wanted to immigrate, which the couple did in July 1991.

Guido Amsel had trained as an automotive technician in Germany and, two years after settling in Winnipeg, they started a business, Eurotech Autobody on Springfield Road, and had a son together in 1995, she said.

Guido Amsel owned the business, which later moved to Raleigh Street and then back to Springfield. But when the couple’s divorce was finalized in 2004, she got a 50 per cent stake in the company, Iris Amsel told court.

They got a lawyer to help them “resolve it all,” so he would once again own 100 per cent of Eurotech’s shares, she said. Guido Amsel agreed to pay his ex-wife $100,000, and he also owed her a lump sum of $40,000, plus half of the cost of the equipment they had purchased for the business, she said.

However, he didn’t pay all of the money he owed her, so she took legal action, Iris Amsel said.

Maria Mitousis, who would later lose her right hand after opening an explosive package at her River Avenue law office, took on the case.

Guido Amsel launched a countersuit, and the proceedings stretched on. Eventually, an auction date to sell the equipment and divide the assets was set for July 11, 2015 — a week after three explosive packages were discovered.

The auction never happened. Iris Amsel said she cancelled it amid the “media frenzy” surrounding the explosions and in light of the fact her lawyer had been badly hurt.

The business never made millions of dollars, Iris Amsel said in response to Vanderhooft’s questions. She denied stealing money from the business and sending money to Germany — allegations Guido Amsel presented to the RCMP commercial crimes unit in 2011. RCMP Sgt. Dan Bresciani previously testified he determined no criminal investigation was warranted.

Though divorced, the Amsels kept working together until 2009, when Iris Amsel said her ex-husband found out she had impersonated someone on the Internet. His defence team has suggested she was trying to interfere with his relationship with his new wife. In 2005, Guido Amsel had married a woman from the Philippines.

“He went on the Internet to find a person he could marry,” Iris Amsel said. Later, she pretended to be someone else on the Internet and her ex-husband kicked her out of Eurotech when he found out, she said.

“He forced me out. He did not want me on the property.”

During cross-examination, she denied sending Guido Amsel’s wife dead flowers and said she couldn’t remember whether she had written a letter to the immigration department describing the wife as a prostitute.

By December 2013, Iris Amsel thought her civil suit against her ex-husband was nearing a resolution, she testified. Then, there was an explosion in front of her home in the R.M. of St. Clements.

She testified about seeing broken glass, the front door and its frame pushed into the house. The garage window was shattered, the brick on the home’s exterior was blackened and there was a crater in the outer wall of the garage.

Initially, she said she thought the home had been hit by vandals. After an insurance adjuster inspected the damage, Iris Amsel said she learned it was likely the result of an explosion. The RCMP launched an investigation, but she said she didn’t hear back from police about its outcome.

Both Iris Amsel and her boyfriend, James Block, testified Tuesday they slept through the night before the explosion outside the house on Dec. 13, 2013. Neither one of them heard any noise.

“I’m going to suggest that you pretended you didn’t hear anything because you planted the bomb,” Zaman said during cross-examination.

“That is not correct,” Iris Amsel replied.

She told court she believed Guido Amsel’s handwriting matched that on the alleged explosive packages, but conceded she is not an expert in handwriting analysis.

kate.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay