A man identified only by his initials EBC (64) of Jimera de Libar has been arrested and charged by the Guardia Civil for threatening the life of the village mayor Mayte Dominguez (PP) in Internet forums for the last year.

The mayor of Jimera reported the man’s threats after seeing comments he’d left on one of Spain’s biggest online forums, foro-cuidad.com, in which he stated he wanted to kill her, and make Jimera another Fago, a small town in the north of the country where a mayor was murdered by another villager in similar circumstances.

The threats were made using several nicknames online, including ‘jesusmartinez’, ‘eusebio 1946’, and ‘libararte’ though a court order enforced by the Guardia Civil allowed access to the user’s private account details, and after forensic examination of the writing style were found to be operated by the same person.

EBC has been arraigned to appear in court on charges of making public threats and being in possession of unlicensed shotguns, one of which was found to be loaded with live ammunition at the time of his arrest. He has also been committed to a mental health institution pending trial.