A Manitoba man sentenced to life in prison after sending letter bombs to his ex-wife and two lawyers will remain incarcerated after losing an appeal of a decision to deny him parole.

Guido Amsel’s request for parole was denied in August 2025, after the Parole Board of Canada found that while he generally behaved positively while incarcerated and participated in some programming, he showed no remorse for his actions and continued to believe he was set up by police and his ex-wife.

Amsel was given a life sentence with no chance of parole for 10 years for the attempted murder of his ex-wife, Iris Amsel, and lawyers Maria Mitousis and George Orle in 2015. He was also sentenced to 12 years minus time served for an earlier attempt to murder his ex-wife in 2013.

A decision from the parole board’s appeal division dated March 13 ruled against Amsel’s challenge of that decision, finding the board acted within its jurisdiction in denying him parole, and didn’t base its decision on erroneous or incomplete information or show a reasonable apprehension of bias, as he alleged.

The appeal decision said the claims Amsel made included that his legislated eligibility dates for full parole were ignored and “simply replaced” with a sentence he never got.

“You claim to have never received your legislated sentence and believe your Parole Officer (PO) and sentence management ‘fabricated a new sentence against [you],'” the appeal decision said, adding Amsel claimed to have completed his sentence and asked to be released so he could return to Germany.

The appeal decision said Amsel also alleged the parole board didn’t want to see what he described as negative results from tests relating to explosive residue found on his hands, and that he was denied parole because he wouldn’t confess to the crimes he was sentenced for — a confession he said could be considered forced, “which is unconstitutional.”

“The Board asked you to respond to file information that indicated explosive chemicals had been tested on your hands and allowed you to provide your version, which was that the tests were negative,” the appeal decision said.

“There is no indication in the recording that the Board tried to get you to confess. The Board was simply providing you the opportunity to present your version of the index offences.”

‘Serious and ongoing risk’

The appeal decision also said while Amsel claimed the parole board only focused on his lack of confession in its decision, it in fact took into account a number of mitigating factors, like his lack of prior criminal history, as well as a longer list of aggravating ones, like his “continuing minimization and denial” about his crimes.

“The Board concluded: ‘This persistent denial, combined with the severity and targeted nature of your violence, indicates that you remain a serious and ongoing risk to the victims and public safety,'” the appeal decision said, affirming the August 2025 decision to deny Amsel full parole.

The update in Amsel’s case comes after a motion he filed for his release was dismissed in September 2025, following a brief hearing where he repeatedly interrupted and tried to argue with the judge, and seemed unclear on the sentence he was given.

He argued in court he’d already served enough of his 12-year sentence to be released, and that a life sentence with no chance of parole for 10 years is for those convicted of second-degree murder. 

During Amsel’s trial, court heard he became so enraged over perceived mistreatment at the hands of his former wife and lawyers who had represented both sides of the couple in a dispute that he sent explosive devices to their places of employment through Canada Post in July 2015.

Only one of the devices went off, causing Mitousis, who represented Amsel’s ex-wife in a lawsuit over an autobody shop the couple had owned a decade earlier, to lose her hand.

Other letter bombs were found later that week at his former wife’s workplace and at a law firm that had represented Amsel in the money dispute. Police detonated both devices safely.

Amsel’s trial also heard he had previously sent an explosive device to his ex-wife’s home in December 2013, but he wasn’t linked to the crime until the 2015 incidents.

Her home, garage and vehicle were destroyed when it detonated while no one was around. There were no injuries as a result.