This morning (Sunday), Reuters revealed new details about the suspect in the car-ramming attack at a Christmas market in Magdeburg Germany which killed 5 and wounded dozens.
The suspect in the attack is a 50-year-old man from Saudi Arabia, has permanent residency in Germany, where he has lived for almost two decades. His name has not been released by the authorities, but many German media outlets refer to him as Taleb A.
The suspect had been working as a psychiatrist at a special rehabilitation clinic for offenders with addictions in Bernburg since March 2020. "Since the end of October 2024, he has been absent due to sick leave," the clinic said in a statement.
He lived on a quiet street near the city center of Bernburg, a town of 30,000 people, south of Magdeburg, in a three-story apartment building.
German authorities said at the beginning of the investigation that the suspect was not known to them as an Islamist. Germany's interior minister, Nancy Pfizer, declined to comment on the suspect's motives for the attack or his political affiliation, but said his Islamophobia was "clear to all."
Magdeburg's local prosecutor, Horst Nofens, said a possible cause of the attack may have been "the suspect's dissatisfaction with the treatment of Saudi refugees in Germany," but added that the motive remained unclear.
Taleb A. appeared in several media interviews in 2019 and spoke about his active work in helping Saudis who abandoned Islam to flee to Europe. In a BBC documentary from July 2019, he talked about how he became an atheist and an asylum seeker in Germany.
He also made sure to harshly criticize Islam in various interviews, and even told the German newspaper FAZ in June of that year: "There is no such thing as good Islam."
His account on the social network X, verified by Reuters, indicated support for the far-right anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. He also supports American billionaire Elon Musk, who criticized German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and expressed support for the AfD.
In Germany, the car-ramming incident has not yet been defined as a terror attack, but the local police have arrested the offending driver and the authorities suspect that it was a deliberate act.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited the scene of the murderous vehicular attack today and said it was "a terrible crime. This is cruelty, and we will respond with full force in accordance with the law." According to reports in Germany, 205 people were injured in the deadly attack, including 41 seriously. The German "Bild" reported that the offending driver tested positive on a drug test.
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