Attack on Christmas market: Doctor, anti-Islam, in Germany since 2006 – This is what we know about the Magdeburg attacker

At least two people, an adult and a small child, were killed in an attack on the Magdeburg Christmas market. The perpetrator races into the crowd in a rental car. He was arrested.

Saxony-Anhalt's Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff spoke of a lot of injuries, at least 60. “This is a catastrophe for the city of Magdeburg and for the country and also for Germany in general,” said Haseloff. The police gave the number of 15 seriously injured people.

What we know

• According to initial findings, the man is a 50-year-old specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy from Saudi Arabia. He was born in 1974.
• The authorities are currently assuming a lone perpetrator.
• He came to Germany in 2006 and lives in Bernburg, around 50 kilometers south of Magdeburg. According to information from WELT, a police operation took place at his place of residence that night.
• According to WELT information from security circles, the alleged perpetrator is said to have worked as a doctor in the penal system in Bernburg. The Bernburg correctional facility is a facility run by the state of Saxony-Anhalt to improve and protect addicted criminals.
• He has a permanent residence permit because he was recognized as a refugee in Germany in 2016.
• In a 2019 FAZ interview, the perpetrator described himself as the “most aggressive critic of Islam in history”. He is an atheist and applied for Aysl in Germany because, as an infidel and critic of Islam, he fears persecution in his home country. BBC and “Spiegel” reported similarly in 2019.
• He had made it his mission to show other people being persecuted in Saudi Arabia a path to asylum in places such as Germany or Australia.