“Is there a path to justice in Germany without blowing up a German embassy or randomly slitting the throats of German citizens?” », asked Taleb al-Abdulmohsen last August. Despite signals of his dangerousness, the 50-year-old Saudi doctor escaped the radar of the German intelligence services.
The day after the bloody car-ramming attack on the Magdeburg Christmas market, which left at least five dead and more than 200 injured, the German government, accused of not having stopped the fifty-year-old sooner, must face to criticism in the middle of the electoral campaign.
Warnings ignored
However, Taleb al-Abdulmohsen's behavior had already been reported on several occasions. Starting with his country of origin, Saudi Arabia. In 2023, the Saudi secret services sent a warning to the German federal intelligence service, the BDN, about the doctor, who had taken refuge in Germany, according to our colleagues from the German daily Der Spiegel. They had called for his arrest for alleged terrorist activities.
If Riyadh had warned Berlin, it was because Taleb al-Abdulmohsen had published several messages on a rigorous Islam but, on the other hand, to welcome radical Muslims from other countries with open arms. Despite warnings, German authorities rejected this request, believing that it could be politically motivated.
Locking himself into conspiratorial and virulent speeches, Taleb al-Abdulmohsen went so far as to threaten Germany with a “price” to pay, claiming to have “evidence” about “deliberate crimes” which according to him would have been committed by “German authorities” against Saudi refugees. “I assure you that if Germany wants war, we will have it. If Germany wants to kill us, we will massacre them, die or go to prison with pride,” he wrote last August.
No “particular danger” according to the police
The man even frightened the Saudi community exiled in Germany, where he was well known for helping asylum seekers, particularly women who renounced the Islamic faith, to leave their country. Mina Ahadi, president of the Central Council of Former Muslims, describes him as an “ultra-right conspiracy-minded psychopath” who hates everyone who does not share his hatred.
A “risk” assessment was carried out by the German police in 2023, according to the German daily, Die Welt. But despite the signals, the latter judged that Taleb al-Abdulmohsen did not present “particular danger”. However, the man had already been fined by German courts in 2013 in Rostock for “disturbing public order” and “threats to commit crimes”.
The day before the bloody attack in Magdeburg, the Saudi psychiatrist had to respond to a legal summons to Berlin, where he was being prosecuted for a scandal in a police station refusing to register his complaint, according to German media. But he never showed up.
An “escape route” without a concrete block
But beyond the worrying profile of Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, it is the security of the Christmas market which is being singled out. The alleged perpetrator, boarding a powerful BMW vehicle, mowed down the crowd while crossing an alley at full speed, via “an escape route”, explained Tom-Oliver Langhans, police chief of the municipality German, during a press conference.
Despite the criticism, the deputy mayor of Magdeburg, Ronni Krug, insisted that the market was “under high security” and that the system had been validated by the town hall in conjunction with the police. “Concrete blocks had been placed in the surrounding area,” he said, but the suspect approached with his vehicle via an “escape route” which did not have a concrete block “in order to to send emergency vehicles and firefighters through. “We are in a situation that we could not have expected,” he added.
“The incompetence of the administration, which allowed the horror of Magdeburg, leaves one speechless,” criticized the leader of the German far right in view of the next legislative elections at the end of February, Alice Weidel. Same speech from the other anti-system party, radical left this time, BSW, whose leader, Sahra Wagenknecht, demands explanations after “so many warnings were ignored”.
