Germany Magdeburg Christmas market attacker: What we know so far | Crime News

Five people, including a nine-year-old boy, died when a man drove a car into a crowded Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, on December 20.

More than 200 people were injured in the attack on Friday evening, including about 40 people who were seriously or seriously injured.

On Tuesday, German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier used his traditional Christmas address to the nation to call for national unity.

He said: “There is a dark shadow this Christmas.”

“Hatred and violence must not have the last word. Let’s not allow ourselves to be divided. Let’s stand together.”

Authorities reported that the suspect used emergency exits to reach the premises of the Christmas market, where he ran through the crowd during a three-minute riot. The suspect surrendered to the police at the scene.

The Magdeburg Police Department said in a statement on Sunday that the suspect was arrested on five charges of murder and several charges of attempted murder and grievous bodily harm.

Here’s what we know about the suspect:

Who is the suspect?

The suspect has been identified as Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old psychiatrist from Saudi Arabia who has lived in Germany for nearly two decades.

He is employed at a clinic that specializes in the treatment of criminals with addiction problems but has been on sick leave since the end of October.

He has described himself as a “Saudi atheist” and an anti-Muslim activist who has helped ex-Muslims flee the Gulf states.

Al-Abdulmohsen has been active online, criticizing Germany for accepting many Muslim refugees and supporting far-right views on the “Islamisation” of Europe.

News magazine Der Spiegel reported that al-Abdulmohsen was a supporter of the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Mina Ahadi, who chairs the Central Council of Ex-Muslims in Germany, told the German newspaper Tageszeitung that the suspect was known to the council and tried to send a donation eight years ago.

He recalled his behavior as “aggressive” and said he felt like he was “dealing with a mentally ill person”.

Ahadi wrote in X on Saturday that al-Abdulmohsen has “terrorized” the council for several years.

“His delusional views have reached the point where he thinks that even organizations that criticize Islam are part of the Islamist conspiracy,” he said.

What do the authorities say?

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told reporters on Saturday: “At the moment, what we can say with certainty is that the perpetrator was Islamophobic. We can already confirm that. Everything else will be investigated further.”

On Sunday he said the attacker “didn’t fit any previous pattern” because he “was pretending to be an Islamist terrorist even though he was clearly an enemy of Islam”.

Parliamentary committee hearings will be held on December 30 regarding the attack where Faeser and intelligence chiefs in Germany and other countries will answer questions, the attorney general told AFP news agency.

What was the suspect’s intention?

The prosecutor of Magdeburg, Horst Nopens, said on Saturday that one factor influencing the suspect’s intentions could be his frustration with the way Germany treats Saudi refugees.

The suspect had issued online death threats against German citizens and had a history of conflict with state authorities.

According to a report by Der Spiegel news magazine citing security sources, the Saudi secret service notified the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, last year about a tweet in which al-Abdulmohsen warned that Germany would face consequences. Saudi refugee management.

In August he wrote on social media: “Is there a way to justice in Germany without blowing up the German embassy or randomly slaughtering German citizens?… If anyone knows, please let me know.”

Citing security sources, Die Welt newspaper reported that the German government and federal police conducted a “risk assessment” on al-Abdulmohsen last year but concluded that he poses “no particular risk”.

What else is known about the suspect’s intentions?

Felix Neumann, a policy adviser on security issues at Germany’s Konrad Adenauer Foundation, told Al Jazeera that the incident was initially thought to be an “Islamic attack as it was very similar to the Breitscheidplatz attack in 2016” when a truck was deliberately driven into Christmas. in the market in Berlin, 13 people died.

“Judging by the comments he made online, however, it is now unlikely that it was an Islamic attack,” Neumann said.

“The perpetrator was very critical of Islam and shared right-wing stories on his account X. Further investigation will reveal what ultimately motivated him, but the concept of ‘salad bar extremism’ may apply here.

“This means that individuals choose those features that make sense to them, but there are no common, coherent views.”

Could the government have done more to prevent this attack?

Neumann said: “Germany is a government system, which has various advantages, but knowledge sharing is not one of them.

“Foreign intelligence agencies and people who provided information about possible dangers must be investigated, and where there were mistakes in the chain of information sharing.

“This should therefore be improved so that potentially dangerous analyzes can be better communicated between authorities.”