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The 29-year-old denied trying to kill anyone by targeting the team bus with three bombs, but was found guilty on attempted murder charges
The man who attacked Borussia Dortmund’s bus with a bomb has been found guilty of 28 counts of attempted murder and sentenced to 14 years in prison.
A court in Dortmund convicted the man, a dual German-Russian national known as Sergej W, on Tuesday for the attack carried out on April 11, 2017 when the German side were en route to a Champions League clash against Monaco.
The explosion occurred shortly after the team embarked on their journey from their hotel and left centre-back Marc Bartra needing surgery on a fractured wrist and shrapnel in his arm.
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A police officer was also injured in the attack, but no other Dortmund players or members of staff were hurt.
The culprit admitted to making and setting off three bombs in the attack, but he has denied that he tried to kill anyone in the process.
In fact, the bombing was part of a money-making scheme. On the day of the attack, the 29-year-old bought €44,000 worth of share options with the expectation that the club’s stock price would plummet and allow him to sell them on for a large profit.
Instead, the share price rose in the wake of the attack.
Bartra, now at Real Betis, described the incident as “the longest 15 minutes of my life”, while defender Matthias Ginter admitted he considered retiring from the game as a result of the attack.
Then Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel, who currently manages Paris Saint-Germain, said in March that he would have stayed at the German club had the attack not happened.
When asked by chief prosecutor Carsten Dombert at the trial whether he would have remained as BVB boss had the events of April 11 not occurred, Tuchel replied: “I would assume that.
“Aki [Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke ] has already said publicly that there has been big dissent, which is true.
“The big dissent was that I was sitting on the bus and Aki was not. That’s why there was a different approach to dealing with it, without wanting to reproach Aki for that.”
The match against Monaco was rescheduled for the day after the attack, with the visitors claiming a 3-2 victory that they would duly close out with a 3-1 win in the return leg.
After the rearranged game, Tuchel claimed neither he nor his players had been consulted over playing 24 hours on from ordeal – something Watzke denied.