Chemistry student plotted gas attack targeting anti-Pope protesters
Jose Perez Bautista, A 24-year-old Mexican chemistry student working as a volunteer in preparation for the Pope’s visit to Madrid, was arrested Tuesday for allegedly planning a gas attack targeting anti-papal protestors. Pope Benedict XVI will arrive in Madrid Thursday for a four-day visit in celebration of World Youth Day. A protest against his visit is scheduled for Wednesday. Bautista was arrested at a Madrid convention centre where hundreds of thousands of pilgrims were picking up their accreditation. Police say he planned to attack protestors with “suffocating gases”—information they found on a computer hard drive and notebooks seized from his apartment in Madrid. Mexican Embassy spokesman, Bernardo Graue, says consular officials have visited Bautista in prison, and say he is “relaxed” and in good physical condition.