November 28 – The man who bombed the Borussia Dortmund team bus last season for the bizarre reason of trying to make money on the club’s shares crashing has been handed a 14- year jail sentence for attempted murder.
A court in Dortmund found Sergej Wenergold (identified only as Sergej W due to German privacy rules but fully named by local media) guilty of 28 counts of attempted murder after he detonated three explosive devices, hidden in a hedge, while the bus was travelling to the stadium for a Champions League game.
Dortmund’s Spanish defender Marc Bartra and a police officer were injured when the explosions rocked the Dortmund team’s bus in April 2017 as it left a nearby hotel en route to a home Champions League fixture with AS Monaco. Bartra underwent surgery on a broken bone in his wrist while the match itself was postponed for 24 hours.
Prosecutors said the bomber had taken out a loan to place a bet that the club’s shares would drop in value before carrying out the attack and attempting to disguise it as an Islamist terror attack. He was arrested 10 days later.
The 29-year-old German, who came to the country from Russia aged 13, admitted he was behind the roadside attack but said his intention was to make money rather than harm anyone. He apparently bought about €44,000 worth of share options on the day of the attack, which he could have sold at a profit if share prices had dropped.
Prosecutors called for a life sentence but the defence argued the defendant, who had stayed at the same hotel as the players, should only be convicted of setting off an explosion and given a much lower sentence.
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