The man, with far-right sympathies and anti-Islamic conspiracy theories, is called Taleb Al Abdulmohsen and is 50 years old. Having arrived in Germany in 2006, he would have acted alone, as a lone wolf. The motive for the attack is not yet clear. Riyadh would have warned Berlin about its danger
He is a doctor specializing in psychiatry and psychotherapy and works in Bernburg, an employee of the Salus Clinic, the man arrested after throwing a car at breakneck speed last night into people at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, where at least 5 were killed people and 200 were injured, 41 of them seriously. According to other information disclosed by the president of the Saxony-Anhalt Region, he is a Saudi man of around 50 years old named Taleb Al Abdulmohsen. He reportedly tested positive in a drug test conducted after his arrest. He arrived in Germany in 2006. He would have acted alone, as a lone wolf. Saudi sources told Reuters that Riyadh had warned the German authorities about the danger of the perpetrator of the attack. In fact, Saudi Arabia alerted the German authorities three times about the danger of the man. Al Abdulmohsen published and reposted extremist statements on his X account accusing Germany of wanting to Islamize Europe.
He had a permanent residence permit
As of 2020, he was employed in the correctional system for people with addictions. As reported by the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, in recent weeks Al Abdulmohsen was absent several times due to illness and consequently appeared unprepared for meetings. From what we understand, yesterday the man rented the vehicle used for the massacre shortly before the attack. A piece of luggage was found on the passenger seat. A video shows the black SUV stopping and the man driving exiting the vehicle, raising his hands and lying on the ground, surrounded by officers pointing their weapons at him. The man, said the Interior Minister of Saxony-Anhalt, Tamara Zieschang, lives in Bernburg in the district of Salzland and has a permanent residence permit. No explosive device was found in the car. This was reported by the local police, cited by the German media. Due to a suspicious piece of luggage on the passenger seat, the area around the car had been cordoned off in fear of explosives.
The mirror: “Musk fan and AfD sympathizer”
As reported by The mirror, the suspect was apparently a fan of Elon Musk, US conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and British right-wing activist Tommy Robinson. The German newspaper reports a post on anything Robinson, Musk, Alex Jones, or anyone portrayed by the mainstream media as a radical or right-wing extremist says is telling the truth.” According to the weekly, the man is a sympathizer of the German far-right AfD party. He was recognized as a refugee in July 2016 because he had been threatened with death for renouncing Islam.
Women's rights activist
According to the German newspaper, Taleb has been an activist for women's rights for years, in particular advising women from Saudi Arabia on how to escape their country and managing a website with information on the German asylum system. In an interview with the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper in 2019, he said he had been contacted by Saudi women asking for protection “because they had been raped by their male guardian”. The German asylum system, she said, was “a way for women to achieve freedom.” Over time, however, he seems to have distanced himself from his activism. In November he posted four “demands from the liberal Saudi opposition” on his X account, the first of which was: “Germany must protect its borders from illegal immigration.” And again: “it has been proven that the open borders policy was a plan by Merkel to Islamize Europe,” he wrote in reference to the former German chancellor. In other posts, he openly sympathized with the AfD and dreamed of a joint project with the party: an academy for former Muslims. “Who else is fighting Islam in Germany?” he asked.
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Interviewed by He doesin 2019: “I am the biggest critic of Islam”
“I am the most aggressive critic of Islam in history. If you don't believe me, ask the Arabs”, this is a passage from an interview that Taleb Al Abdulmohsen gave to Faz in June 2019, republished today by the German newspaper. “I wrote against Islam on the forum of the activist Raif Badawi, who is now in prison. That's why I was threatened: they wanted to 'slaughter' me if I returned to Saudi Arabia. So I decided to ask for asylum in Germany. He wouldn't have meaning to risk having to return and then be killed”, said Taleb Jawad Hussein Al Abdulmohsen illustrating the reasons for his asylum request forwarded to the German authorities only ten years after his arrival in Germany, which instead dates back to 2006. Once the alleged attacker accepted the request, he opened his account on what was then Twitter. “Before, it was also difficult for me to talk about my non-faith in Germany. From 2006 to 2017 I often worked with Muslims in Hamburg, I had colleagues from Pakistan and India. I couldn't tell them that I would no longer go to the mosque. In this environment it is not as you imagine it to be in Germany: Muslims here treat people like me, who have an Islamic background but are no longer believers, without understanding or tolerance. When we say that we have left Islam, we lose our friends Even after submitted an asylum application, I noticed that many of the Muslim asylum seekers that I voluntarily help in Germany think that I am a bad person because I no longer believe in them”, we read again in the interview during which the suspected attacker also offered a detailed description of the violation of women's rights in Saudi Arabia and its work to help refugees and women obtain asylum, particularly former Muslims who fear persecution in their country. “I want people to learn to think for themselves. There are many Muslims on Twitter who want to leave Islam because of me. I always write to these people: No, I will not accept you leaving Islam because of me. It should be a belief of yours”, he explained again.
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Attack in Magdeburg, tragedy area manned by police and military
Searches in Bernburg, where the attacker lived
The German news site Mdrciting a local police spokesperson, reported that searches were carried out in Bernburg after the attack. According to the Interior Minister of Sachsen-Anhalt, Tamara Zieschang, the arrested suspect lived in the town in the district of Salzland. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) are expected in Magdeburg today. In the evening there will be a commemoration in Magdeburg Cathedral, announced Mayor Simone Borris.
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German police: “The motive is still unclear”
The German police cannot yet provide any information on the motive for the attack on the Christmas market. The event “cannot yet be definitively classified”, said a spokesperson for the police, quoted by the German media, specifying that “the background is not yet known, we are taking everything into account”. The identity and story of the man arrested by the police is the subject of great astonishment in Germany: how is it possible, one wonders, that a doctor, who has lived in the Federal Republic for over 18 years, employed on a permanent basis, and operating in his profession, could he have become radicalised? Also tormenting politicians and public opinion is the increase in the frequency of violent acts of a terrorist nature: the last attack on a crowd in 2024 dates back to 23 August, when a man armed with a knife attacked the citizens of Solingen, who were celebrating the 650 years of their city with a festival dedicated to diversity, in North Rhine-Westphalia. The toll was three dead and 8 injured.
