the German government highlights the psychiatric disorders of the alleged perpetrator

The German government, accused of failings after the fatal car-ramming attack on the Magdeburg Christmas market, estimated, Monday, December 30, that this attack, which caused the death of five people and left 200 injured, “could not have been avoided” and reported “signs” psychiatric disorders of the alleged perpetrator, whose behavior reflects a “pathological psyche”.

Questioned for several hours by a parliamentary committee, the Minister of the Interior, Nancy Faeser, affirmed at the end that the ongoing investigations “do not yet give a clear picture” of the “author’s motivations”. However, she highlighted “thousands of declarations” made for years by Taleb A. on social networks, which give “signs of a pathological psyche”. Since December 20, Germany has been wondering about the reasons which pushed this 50-year-old Saudi doctor, who came to Germany in 2006, to mow down the crowd at the Christmas market aboard a powerful BMW vehicle going at full speed. .

Several voices in the opposition and certain media accuse the authorities of serious errors of judgment, as the alleged perpetrator, arrested in his car at the scene of the tragedy, had multiplied the worrying signals beforehand.

This man, known for his radically hostile opinions towards Islam after breaking with his religion and his country of origin, “does not fit into any previous pattern” known to the authorities, the minister tried to explain. “There are tens of thousands of tweets from the attacker. This is why everything is not yet on the table”added M^me Faeser in response to criticism of the lack of a clear response ten days after the fact.

Government under pressure

Two months before early legislative elections, the German government finds itself under political pressure following the attack.

A difficult personality to pin down, the trained psychiatrist has expressed his hatred of Islam, his anger against the German immigration services and his support for far-right conspiracy stories on a “Islamization” of Europe. According to the court, the man, currently in pre-trial detention, appears to have acted to denounce the lack of support from the German authorities responsible for asylum to Saudi refugees as having broken with their country.

As early as 2013, he was fined in Rostock, in the north-east of Germany, for “disturbing public order” and “threats to commit crimes”. He was already threatening to commit an attack at the time.

More recently, Saudi Arabia asked Berlin for his extradition, after repeatedly warning that he “could be dangerous”a source close to the government in Riyadh told AFP. German police, after an assessment “of risk”had judged last year that he did not present “particular danger”. She conducted a first interview with him at the end of September 2023 in a police station, a second at the beginning of October 2024 at his workplace.

“This horrible act keeps my mind busy”

“The act was predictable, for everyone”said a representative of the far-right AfD party after the parliamentary hearing.

The interior minister acknowledged that the different administrations could have worked better together to share information on the Saudi doctor, but ultimately the drama “could not have been avoided”according to her.

On the political level, the attack placed the questions of immigration and security at the heart of the campaign for the early legislative elections on February 23. Taleb A. had refugee status and thus benefited from the protection of his host country.

Accused by the opposition of lack of firmness with foreigners deemed dangerous, the Social Democratic Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, promised to shed light on possible “failures on the part of the authorities” Magdeburg regional and federal. “This horrible act keeps my mind busy”he said Friday.