Suspect in Christmas market attack held on murder charges, German authorities under fire over his history of threats
BERLIN – The man suspected of committing a deadly car-ramming attack at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, that killed at least five people and injured scores of others, faces charges of murder and attempted murder, police said on Sunday, after the man was remanded in custody.
The Saudi suspect is a 50-year-old psychiatrist and anti-Islam activist, who lived in Germany for almost two decades and has permanent resident status in the country. Moreover, he referred to himself as “a Saudi atheist” in an unpublished interview with AFP from 2022.
At the same time, he has criticised the entry of Muslim migrants and war refugees to Germany and backed conspiracy theories about the planned “Islamisation” of Europe.
News magazine Der Spiegel reported that the suspect had sympathised with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
A magistrate ordered the man, identified in German media as Taleb A., into pretrial custody after prosecutors pressed charges of murder on five counts and multiple counts of attempted murder and grievous bodily harm, according to a police statement.
The death toll includes a nine-year-old boy and four adult women, aged 52, 45, 75, and 67.
Among the 205 injured, around 40 were in critical condition, with doctors fighting to save their lives.
Der Spiegel, citing security sources, said the Saudi secret service had warned Germany’s spy agency BND a year ago about a tweet in which Taleb A threatened the German security.
This information has sparked growing questions about whether more could have been done to prevent the attack, putting the German authority under fire.
On Saturday night, police in the central city of Magdeburg, where the attack unfolded, reported scuffles at a far-right demonstration attended by around 2,100 people, while other residents took part in sombre remembrance events.
Protesters wearing black balaclavas could be seen holding a large banner with the word ‘remigration’, a term popular with far-right supporters seeking the mass deportation of migrants and people deemed not ethnically German.
