A former long-serving commandant in the Swiss Guard was the victim of the parcel bomb sent to the Swiss embassy on December 23.
Known only as Andreas C, the 53-year-old lost part of his left hand in the explosion which was thought to have been the work of an anarchist terrorist group.
A native of Stalden near Zermatt, Andreas C. served 27 years in the Swiss Guard and became one of John Paul II¹s most trusted bodyguards. He was present during one of the pontiff's most difficult visits, to Berlin in the mid 1990s, when protesters threw missiles at the Popemobile.
