Borussia Dortmund bus bomb accused confesses
January 8, 2018
The 28-year-old man accused of setting off three roadside bombs targeting the bus carrying one of Germany's top teams, Borussia Dortmund (BVB), has admitted he carried out the attack, in which one player, Marc Bartra, and a police officer were injured.
Read more — Marc Bartra on the 'hardest 15 minutes' of his life
However, he told a court in the western city of Dortmund that he had not wanted to cause deaths in the attack on April 11, 2017.
"I regret my behavior deeply," Sergei V. said, adding that he had "especially designed the explosives so that no harm to people was to be expected."
Hope of riches?
The bombing, which took place minutes before a Champions League match, is thought to have been an elaborate bid to profit on the stock market. The accused took out a loan and used the money to buy "options" on BVB shares before the bombing.
Sergei V. allegedly stood to potentially gain more half a million euros if extensive damage had occurred.
"If several or even all of the BVB players had been seriously injured or even killed, meaning that the club could not in the foreseeable time have participated in national and international matches, then it would have had a significant impact on the value of BVB on the stock market", the indictment said.
Borussia Dortmund is the only football team in Germany whose shares are publicly traded on the stock exchange.
Read more — Dortmund's Kagawa opens up about bus attack on blog
The trial opened last month. Sergei V. is charged with 28 counts of attempted murder, two counts of bodily harm and setting off an explosion and faces a possible life sentence.
He was arrested 10 days after the attack.
tj/msh (dpa, SID, AP)
DW follows German privacy laws by identifying the accused only by forename and first letter of the surname