Dortmund’s Bartra appears before court as witness in bus attack trial

Berlin, Jan 29 (IANS) Borussia Dortmund defender Marc Bartra on Monday testified as a witness before a court in Germany regarding a bomb attack on the Bundesliga team's bus last year, which injured two players.

The 27-year-old Spaniard recounted the events that took place in April 2017, when the Dortmund bus was hit by three roadside bombs while heading to their stadium for the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals against Monaco, reports Efe.

Bartra was initially expected to testify orally, but chose to present a written statement after learning that the bombing's alleged perpetrator would be present at the hearing.

The defender said that, during the attack, he feared for his life and that he would never see his family again, according to the statement read by Dortmund lawyer Alfons Becker.

The defender acknowledged that he had not yet overcome the attack and still has nightmares.

Bartra recalled that he feared there would be a second attack and felt severe pain in one arm, and later underwent surgery for the wound.

The prosecution believes the alleged perpetrator, who is accused of 28 cases of attempted murder and causing personal injury, wanted to kill as many players as possible in the attack.

Investigators allege that the attacker wanted to bring down Dortmund's share price on the stock market by killing members of the team, having made a speculative wager in the club's stock in which he would have benefited from a sharp decrease in share value.

The alleged attacker has admitted he carried out the bombing but claimed he had no intention of killing anyone.

The bombing was originally suspected to be linked to the Islamic State terror organisation as the alleged assailant had left forged letters claiming the attack had been organised in response to a German military intervention against the IS in Syria and Iraq.

Two more contradictory fake claims were soon made, one saying the attack had been carried out by leftists because the team had not been fighting far-right elements within its fanbase and the other, which contained praises of Adolf Hitler, saying it was an attack on multiculturalism.

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