The legal review of the attack on the team bus of the Bundesliga soccer team Borussia Dortmund will continue before the Federal Supreme Court. As the Dortmund Regional Court confirmed on Friday in response to a SID request, both the defendant Sergej W., who was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment, and the public prosecutor’s office have appealed.
Sergei W. was sentenced on Tuesday for attempted murder, causing an explosives explosion, and dangerous physical injury. The presiding judge thus remained below the request of the public prosecutor’s office, which had demanded life imprisonment. The defense had pleaded for a sentence of well under ten years.
On 11 April, W. had detonated three homemade explosive devices shortly after leaving the team’s quarters, in addition to the moving BVB bus, which was on its way to the Champions League home match against AS Monaco with 28 passengers. The then BVB player Marc Bartra suffered a fracture of his arm as well as foreign body blastings during the attack, an accompanying policeman suffered a blast trauma.
In the trial, the defendant had admitted the crime, but denied any intention of killing. Rather, he had explained that he had bet on a fall in the share price with warrants and had hoped for a profit of several tens of thousands of euros.
The presiding judge Peter Windgätter, however, considered it proven that W. had condoned the loss of life in his attack. The fact that the accused was not sentenced to life imprisonment was due to his partial confession.
At trial, the court had also heard almost all of the bus passengers at the time as witnesses. In their testimonies, the players gave deep insights into their soul lives. Several people on the bus at the time are still undergoing psychological treatment.
For the BVB, which had appeared in the process as a joint plaintiff, it was important that an “acceptable verdict of guilty” had been pronounced, club lawyer Alfons Becker had announced after the verdict was pronounced.
