German police charge Dortmund bus bomber motivated by share scam

April 21- Police in Germany have charged a man suspected of being behind Tuesday’s bomb attack on the Borussia Dortmund team bus but have ruled out terrorism.

Rather than having links to radical Islamism, the culprit was a market trader with the bizarre idea of trying to make money if the price of shares in the team fell, prosecutors said.

The 28-year-old, identified only as Sergej W, was staying in the team’s hotel in a room overlooking the street where the explosion took place.

Police were originally treating the blast as a terrorist attack after letters were found near the site of the attack indicating links to so-called Islamic State (IS). They arrested a 25-year-old with “Islamic links” the day afterwards.

However, the following week, investigators changed their minds about the motive for the attack. They said the letters found at the scene may have been an attempt to trick people into thinking there was an Islamist motive.

The suspect had allegedly bought options to short-sell 15,000 shares of stock – reportedly priced at €78,000 – in Borussia Dortmund and was hoping to have profited from falling share prices after the incident.

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