The suspect, a 50-year-old Saudi psychiatrist named Taleb A., has lived in Germany for nearly 20 years. Authorities are investigating the motives behind the attack, which remain unclear.
A man drove a car into a crowd at a Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg on Friday evening, killing at least five people, including a 9-year-old child and injuring over 200 others.
Authorities arrested the 50-year-old driver at the scene and took him into custody for questioning.
Officials confirmed that the man, a Saudi national who has lived in Germany for nearly 20 years, works as a doctor.
Several German media outlets have identified the suspect as Taleb A., withholding his full name due to privacy regulations.
Reports indicate he is a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy.
No motive has been established yet for why the suspect drove into the crowd.
The alleged perpetrator has been sharing Islamophobic views online for years.
German media has identified an account on X, allegedly linked to the suspect, with a handle saying, “Saudi Military Opposition • Germany chases female Saudi asylum seekers, inside and outside Germany, to destroy their lives • Germany wants to Islamise Europe”.
In a 2019 FAZ interview, Taleb Abdulmohsen described himself as “the most aggressive critic of Islam in history.”
He founded an online platform to help Saudi Arabian citizens apply for asylum in Germany, claiming that the state was giving asylum to “Syrian jihadists.”
He also accused German authorities of not adequately addressing what he called the “Islamism of Europe.”
The suspect is also a supporter of businessman Elon Musk.
He was also described as an activist who assisted Saudi women fleeing their country.
Taleb A. has publicly expressed support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and recently appeared to focus on a theory that German authorities were targeting Saudi asylum seekers.
German terrorism expert Peter Neumann remarked on the unusual profile of the suspect. “After 25 years in this ‘business’, you think nothing could surprise you anymore. But a 50-year-old Saudi ex-Muslim living in East Germany, loves the AfD and wants to punish Germany for its tolerance towards Islamists — that wasn’t on my radar,” said Neumann, director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence at King’s College in London.
ADVERTISEMENTTaleb A. has lived in Germany since 2006 and resides in Saxony-Anhalt, the federal state where Magdeburg is located, confirmed the state’s governor Reiner Haseloff.
Born in the Saudi city of Hofuf in 1974, Taleb reportedly left Saudi Arabia to escape the country’s restrictions, finding it impossible to express his atheist views openly in a nation where Islam is the sole legally recognised religion, according to BBC reports.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry condemned the attack on X but has yet to mention the suspect’s ties to the kingdom.
Saudi Arabia has reportedly issued charges against Taleb A. for alleged terrorism and facilitating the smuggling of women from Gulf countries to Europe.
ADVERTISEMENTDespite these allegations, Germany granted him asylum in 2016 and refused to extradite him to Saudi Arabia.
Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service reportedly received a prior warning from Saudi authorities about Taleb A., referencing a social media post hinting at something “big.”
It is uncertain whether this information was shared with the relevant authorities in Saxony-Anhalt or how they acted upon it.
German journalist Tim Rohn from Welt also shared on X what he claimed to be an email from a Saudi woman to security officials last year, warning of an attack.
ADVERTISEMENTHe wrote: “Tragically, we at @welt have the original email that a woman from Saudi Arabia intended to send to the police in Berlin on September 26, 2023. However, she mistakenly sent it to a police station in the 7,500-person community of Berlin, New Jersey. What happened to it there remains unclear.”