Fiscal accuses suspect in Borussia Dortmund bus attack
The German prosecutor's office has raised charges for the explosive attack carried out in April against Borussia Dortmund's bus, which injured Spanish defender Marc Bartra and a police escort.
According to the Dortmund prosecutor's office, 28-year-old Russian-German Serguei W. has been charged with attempted murder. The prosecutor's office added that they will provide further details once the document has reached the accused and his lawyer.
Prosecutors believe that W. was driven by greed and that he prepared the attack to make large profits in the stock market by speculating on the decline in the club's shares, as reported by the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" and "Bild" newspapers, which broke the news.
On April 11, three explosive devices with metal fragments exploded as Borussia Dortmund's bus passed by, which was supposed to play against Monaco in the Champions League on that day.
Bartra was injured in the attack, having to undergo surgery due to a fracture in his right hand radius, and he was absent from the team for several weeks.
The match was postponed to the following day. Some players from the German team said weeks after the attack that they still felt traumatized.
Although there was initially speculation about a terrorist motivation because three letters pointing to Islamist links were found at the explosion site, the police ultimately arrested the 28-year-old suspect, whom they accused of acting for economic motives.
According to the investigation, the man, an electronics technician by profession, detonated the explosives with the aim of making speculative gains, after acquiring 15,000 options to buy Dortmund shares on the same day of the attack. Dortmund is the only Bundesliga club listed on the stock exchange.
W. was arrested ten days after the attack after being monitored by the police. The accused denies the charges, as reported by his lawyer some time ago.
The Dortmund district court will have to decide whether to open a trial, although it is not expected to begin within this year, according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.