Attack in the Christmas market in Magdeburg: a doctor, anti-Islam activist and conspiracy theorist is the author of the massacre

The attacker at the Magdeburg Christmas market in Germany is Taleb Al Abdulmohsen, who fled Saudi Arabia as an atheist, an anti-Islam activist who lives in Bernburg in the Salzland district and has a permanent residence permit, a doctor who instead worked in one of the hospitals that opened the intensive care unit yesterday to help the injured

This was communicated by police sources, who still do not know the motive, but have already discarded the Islamist lead: “At the current state of the investigations it is not yet possible to classify what happened at the Christmas market”, the local police said on Friday evening. The still provisional toll speaks of two deaths, including a child, and around 80 injured, around fifteen seriously.

According to Der Spiegel, he was a fan of Elon Musk and the US conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, as well as the British right-wing activist Tommy Robinson. He claimed not to be right-wing, describing himself as a left-wing man and in a tweet he wrote: “Anyone described by mainstream media as a right-wing radical or extremist is telling the truth.”

The man was arrested after the attack, a video shows the black SUV with which he carried out the massacre stops, then exits the vehicle, raises his hands and lies down on the ground, surrounded by officers who point their guns at him weapons. According to several witnesses, as reported by the local newspaper Volksstimme, “He went in a zigzag, to catch as many people as possible.” The most shocking images are those taken by an eyewitness who however does not speak, where we see people on the ground, desperate cries and first aid from those present.

However, there are many contradictions regarding the profile of the attacker. Resident in Germany since 2006, a doctor practicing in the town of Bernburg, near Magdeburg and with refugee status, he was not at all known for his sympathies towards the jihadist movement. On the contrary, explains the AFP today, his frequent stances on social networks paint the portrait of a man who feels persecuted, who has broken with Islam and on the contrary denounces the dangers of the Islamization of Germany. He was known in the Saudi immigrant community in Germany and helped asylum seekers, particularly women.