A 28-year-old German-Russian man was arrested yesterday in Germany on suspicion of bombing the bus carrying the Borussia Dortmund soccer team in an attack last week that officials alleged was motivated by financial greed.
A Borussia Dortmund player and a police officer were injured in the triple blasts last week as the bus was heading to the team’s stadium for a UEFA Champions League match against AS Monaco.
Investigators found notes at the scene claiming responsibility on behalf of Islamic extremists, but quickly doubted their authenticity.
Photo: AFP
Federal prosecutors said the suspect, identified only as Sergej W, was arrested by a police tactical response team early yesterday.
The man faces charges of attempted murder, causing an explosion and serious bodily harm.
Prosecutors said the suspect had taken out a loan and bought a large number of put options on Borussia Dortmund shares, betting on a drop in the share price.
“A significant share price drop could have been expected if a player had been seriously injured or even killed as a result of the attack,” prosecutors said.
Ralf Jaeger, the top security official in North Rhine-Westphalia state, said the suspect had hoped to earn millions.
“The man appears to have wanted to commit murder out of greed,” Jaeger said.
Prosecutors said they were able to trace the computer used to purchase the put options to the luxury hotel in Dortmund where the team had been staying.
They said Sergej W had also booked a room there and placed three explosives along the route the bus would take to reach the stadium.
“The explosive devices were detonated at the optimum time,” prosecutors said.
Several windows on the bus were shattered in the blasts, injuring defender Marc Bartra. A police officer accompanying the bus also suffered trauma from the blast.
The combined effect of the monsoon, the outer rim of Typhoon Fengshen and a low-pressure system is expected to bring significant rainfall this week to various parts of the nation, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The heaviest rain is expected to occur today and tomorrow, with torrential rain expected in Keelung’s north coast, Yilan and the mountainous regions of Taipei and New Taipei City, the CWA said. Rivers could rise rapidly, and residents should stay away from riverbanks and avoid going to the mountains or engaging in water activities, it said. Scattered showers are expected today in central and
COOPERATION: Taiwan is aligning closely with US strategic objectives on various matters, including China’s rare earths restrictions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan could deal with China’s tightened export controls on rare earth metals by turning to “urban mining,” a researcher said yesterday. Rare earth metals, which are used in semiconductors and other electronic components, could be recovered from industrial or electronic waste to reduce reliance on imports, National Cheng Kung University Department of Resources Engineering professor Lee Cheng-han (李政翰) said. Despite their name, rare earth elements are not actually rare — their abundance in the Earth’s crust is relatively high, but they are dispersed, making extraction and refining energy-intensive and environmentally damaging, he said, adding that many countries have opted to
FORCED LABOR: A US court listed three Taiwanese and nine firms based in Taiwan in its indictment, with eight of the companies registered at the same address Nine companies registered in Taiwan, as well as three Taiwanese, on Tuesday were named by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) as a result of a US federal court indictment. The indictment unsealed at the federal court in Brooklyn, New York, said that Chen Zhi (陳志), a dual Cambodian-British national, is being indicted for fraud conspiracy, money laundering and overseeing Prince Holding Group’s forced-labor scam camps in Cambodia. At its peak, the company allegedly made US$30 million per day, court documents showed. The US government has seized Chen’s noncustodial wallet, which contains
SUPPLY CHAIN: Taiwan’s advantages in the drone industry include rapid production capacity that is independent of Chinese-made parts, the economic ministry said The Executive Yuan yesterday approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion (US$1.44 billion) into domestic production of uncrewed aerial vehicles over the next six years, bringing Taiwan’s output value to more than NT$40 billion by 2030 and making the nation Asia’s democratic hub for the drone supply chain. The proposed budget has NT$33.8 billion in new allocations and NT$10.43 billion in existing funds, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. Under the new development program, the public sector would purchase nearly 100,000 drones, of which 50,898 would be for civil and government use, while 48,750 would be for national defense, it said. The Ministry of