Berlin:

The German government pledged Sunday to fully investigate whether there were security lapses before the Christmas market car-ramming attack that killed five people and injured over 200.

Political pressure has built on the question of potential missed warnings about Saudi suspect Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old psychiatrist who had made online deaths threats and previously had trouble with the law.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser and the heads of Germany’s domestic and foreign intelligence services are due to answer questions at parliamentary committee hearings on December 30, a senior lawmaker told AFP.

Faeser vowed Sunday that “no stone will be left unturned” in shedding light on what information had been available to security services ahead of last Friday’s bloody attack in the eastern city of Magdeburg.

She stressed that the attacker did “not fit any previous pattern” because “he acted like an Islamist terrorist although ideologically he was clearly an enemy of Islam”.

Abdulmohsen has in the past called himself a “Saudi atheist” who helped women flee Gulf countries and charged Germany was doing too little to help them.

In online posts, he also strongly criticised Germany for allowing in too many Muslim refugees and backed far-right conspiracy theories about the “Islamisation” of Europe.

In one post, he wrote: “Is there a path to justice in Germany without blowing up a German embassy or randomly slaughtering German citizens?… If anyone knows it, please let me know.”

News magazine Der Spiegel, citing security sources, said the Saudi secret service had warned Germany’s spy agency BND a year ago about a tweet in which Abdulmohsen threatened Germany would pay a “price” for how it treated Saudi refugees.

Die Welt daily reported, also citing security sources, that German state and federal police had carried out a “risk assessment” on Abdulmohsen last year but concluded that he posed “no specific danger”.

“Blood and screams”

The city of Magdeburg has been in deep mourning over the mass carnage on Friday evening, when an SUV smashed through a crowd at its Christmas market, killing four women and a nine-year-old child and injuring 205 people.

Surgeons at overwhelmed hospitals have worked around the clock, and one health worker told local media of “blood on the floor everywhere, people screaming, lots of painkillers being administered”.

Scholz on Saturday condemned the “terrible, insane” attack and made a call for national unity, at a time Germany is headed for early elections on February 23.

But as German media dug into Abdulmohsen’s past, and investigators gave away little, criticism rained down from opposition parties.

Conservative CDU lawmaker Alexander Throm charged that “many citizens feel… that the Scholz government has completely failed in terms of internal security”.

He demanded greater police powers to monitor and analyse data from social media platforms, telecommunications and surveillance cameras with facial recognition technology.

The far-right AfD called for a special session of parliament, and the head of the far-left BSW party, Sahra Wagenknecht, demanded that Faeser explain “why so many tips and warnings were ignored beforehand”.

Mass-circulation daily Bild asked: “Why did our police and intelligence services do nothing, even though they had the Saudi on their radar?… And why were the tips from Saudi Arabia apparently ignored?”

It charged that “German authorities usually only find out about attack plans in time when foreign services warn them” and called for sweeping reforms after the election for a complete “turnaround in internal security”.

Senior MP Dirk Wiese of Scholz’s Social Democrats said the December 30 hearings will summon the heads of the BND, the domestic intelligence service BfV and the Office for Migration and Refugees.

“Ultra-right conspiracy ideologies”

Media meanwhile reported more details on Abdulmohsen, who had worked at a clinic that treats offenders with substance addiction problems, but had been on sick leave since late October.

Der Spiegel reported that in 2013 a court fined him for “disturbing the public peace by threatening to commit crimes” after he had darkly referenced the deadly attack on the Boston marathon.

The chairwoman of the group Central Council of Ex-Muslims, Mina Ahadi, said Abdulmohsen “is no stranger to us, because he has been terrorising us for years”.

She labelled him “a psychopath who adheres to ultra-right conspiracy ideologies” and said he “doesn’t just hate Muslims, but everyone who doesn’t share his hatred.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Berlin:

The Saudi man– identified as 50-year-old psychiatrist Taleb al-Abdulmohsen– has been remanded in custody for driving a car into a German Christmas market in an attack, that killed at least five people and injured over 200 others, on charges of murder and attempted murder, police said on Sunday. The suspect, an anti-Islam activist, is a residence status in Germany, where he has been living for almost two decades.

Several media reports highlighted that the suspect attacker had made online death threats against German citizens in the past and had a history of quarrelling with state authorities. According to a report by the magazine Der Spiegel, the Saudi secret service had warned Germany’s spy agency BND a year ago about a tweet in which Abdulmohsen threatened Germany would pay a “price” for its treatment of Saudi refugees.

Later in August, Abdulmohsen wrote on social media: “Is there a path to justice in Germany without blowing up a German embassy or randomly slaughtering German citizens?… If anyone knows it, please let me know.”

However, Die Welt daily reported, citing security sources, that German state and federal police had carried out a “risk assessment” on Abdulmohsen last year but concluded that he posed “no specific danger”.

Scholz Govt Faces Criticism

With German media digging into Abdulmohsen’s past, questions are being raised if the Chancellor Olaf Scholz-led government could have done more to prevent the Christmas market car-ramming attack. Mass-circulation German daily Bild asked: “Why did our police and intelligence services do nothing, even though they had the Saudi on their radar?… And why were the tips from Saudi Arabia apparently ignored?”

It charged that “German authorities usually only find out about attack plans in time when foreign services warn them” and called for sweeping reforms after the election for a complete “turnaround in internal security”.

Criticism also came from both the far-right and far-left parties already bitterly opposed to the Scholz government. Per a report by news agency AFP, the far-right AfD’s parliamentary head Bernd Baumann demanded Scholz call a special session of the Bundestag on the “desolate” security situation, arguing that “this is the least that we owe the victims”.

The head of the far-left BSW party, Sahra Wagenknecht, demanded that Interior Minister Nancy Faeser explain “why so many tips and warnings were ignored beforehand”.

Meanwhile, Chancellor Scholz has condemned the “terrible, insane” attack on Friday in the city of Magdeburg and made a call for national unity amid high political tensions as Germany heads towards elections on February 23.

German Christmas Market Attack

A driver rammed a car into a large crowd of revellers at a Christmas market in central Germany on Friday evening, killing five people and injuring some 205, of which 40 remain critical. The suspect, Taleb al-Abdulmohsen was arrested at the scene next to the heavily damaged car. A magistrate ordered him into pretrial custody after prosecutors pressed charges of murder on five counts, multiple counts of attempted murder and grievous bodily harm, according to a police statement.

Authorities said on Saturday the motive was not clear. However, the Magdeburg prosecutor, Horst Nopens, said one possible factor could be what he called the suspect’s frustration with Germany’s handling of Saudi refugees, according to a Reuters report.

About The Suspect

In an unpublished interview with AFP from 2022, Abdulmohsen reportedly referred to himself as “a Saudi atheist”. As an activist, he reportedly helped women flee Gulf countries and have in the past complained that German authorities were not doing enough to help them.

At the same time, he has criticised the entry of other Muslim migrants and war refugees to Germany and backed conspiracy theories about the planned “Islamisation” of Europe. A harsh critic of Germany’s past welcome to many Muslim migrants, he wrote on X that he wished ex-chancellor Angela Merkel could be jailed for life or executed.

In previous brushes with the law, he was first fined by a court in the city of Rostock in 2013 for “disturbing the public peace by threatening to commit crimes”, according to Der Spiegel. This year he was investigated in Berlin for the “misuse of emergency calls” after arguing with police at a station in Berlin.

He had been on sick leave since late October from his workplace, a clinic near Magdeburg that treats offenders with substance addiction problems. The chairwoman of the group Central Council of Ex-Muslims, Mina Ahadi, said that the Saudi suspect “is no stranger to us because he has been terrorising us for years”.

She labelled him “a psychopath who adheres to ultra-right conspiracy ideologies” and said he “doesn’t just hate Muslims, but everyone who doesn’t share his hatred,” according to the AFP report.