Borussia Dortmund Bus Bomber Sentenced to 14 Years in Prison
The man who bombed the Borussia Dortmund team bus in April 2017 has been convicted on 28 counts of attempted murder and was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Dortmund was on its way to its home stadium for a Champions League quarterfinal against Monaco when three explosions hit its motorcoach, injuring defender Marc Bartra and a police officer.
The Washington Post reports that the defendant, who has been identified only as Sergej W. in line with German privacy rules, was sentenced to 14 years in prison by the Dortmund state court on Tuesday after an 11-month trial in which players and former manager Thomas Tuchel testified.
The motivation behind the attack was discovered to be for financial reasons. The convicted suspect was alleged to have taken out a loan in order to place a bet that Borussia Dortmund’s shares would drop in value before carrying out the attack, which in turn would have resulted in a big windfall. He attempted to disguise it as an act of Islamic terrorism, as letters found at the scene claimed that the terrorist organization Islamic State was responsible, but this was inconsistent with previous acts of terrorism by the same group and the letters were found to be forged.
During the defendant's testimony, he claimed that the explosions were never intended to injure anybody. That's ultimately not how any of it played out.
Bartra was wounded by shards of glass from the shattered bus window and the radial bone in his arm was broken. He underwent an operation and returned to training 29 days later. Dortmund fans held up banners in support of him when the rescheduled match was played the next day.
Prosecutors can appeal the sentence and may do so, as they had pushed for a life sentence given the severity of the attack.
