Borussia Dortmund bus bomber given 14yrs jail for attempted murder before #UCL game
German Sergei Wenergold was found guilty of 28 counts of attempted murder for an April 2017 attack on Borussia Dortmund’s team bus before a UEFA Champions League fixture which injured defender Marc Bartra and a police officer.
Wenergold, 29, was also found guilty by a Dortmund state court of inflicting grievous bodily harm and of causing an explosion.
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The attack occurred on April 11 last year when the Dortmund team were leaving their hotel for a Champions League clash with AS Monaco.
Three explosions caused bus windows to smash, injuring Spanish defender Bartra, who then missed one month of the season as a result of a broken wrist damaged in the blast.
Wenergold was arrested 10 days after the attack.
Prosecutors claimed that Wenergold was hoping to influence the club’s share price after buying thousands of euros-worth of shares in the club to sell later for a profit should the club’s market value drop. He had attempted to disguise the incident as a jihadist attack.
Wenergold, who emigrated to Germany from Russia as a teenager, later said that the sole purpose of the bombing was to make money and that he had no intention of injuring anyone.
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It emerged during the trial that he had purchased €44,000 ($49,600)-worth of share options in the club.
If the share price dropped in the aftermath of the attack, Wenergold would have been able to sell these shares for a profit. Instead, the club’s share price rose after the bombing.
