On Sunday, the German government came under increasing pressure to do more to stop the car-ramming attack that killed five people and injured more than 200 at the Christmas market.
Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old psychiatrist and anti-Islam activist who was the Saudi suspect, had a history of clashing with state officials and had threatened German nationals with death online.
According to security sources cited by news magazine Der Spiegel, a year ago, the Saudi secret service alerted Germany’s spy agency BND to a tweet in which Abdulmohsen threatened to charge Germany with paying a “price” for its treatment of Saudi migrants.
“Is there a path to justice in Germany without blowing up a German embassy or randomly slaughtering German citizens?” Abdulmohsen posted on social media in August. Please let me know if you know it.
According to the daily Die Welt, which also cited security sources, German federal and state police conducted a “risk assessment” on Abdulmohsen last year and found that he presented “no specific danger.”
As Germany prepares for elections on February 23, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called for national unity and denounced the “terrible, insane” incident that occurred in the city of Magdeburg on Friday.
He stated that it is crucial “that we remain united, that we link arms, and that the fact that we are a community that aspires to a shared future determines our coexistence rather than hatred.”
However, the far-right and far-left parties, who were already fiercely hostile to the Scholz administration, poured out criticism when German media probed Abdulmohsen’s past and investigators revealed little.
Bernd Baumann, the leader of the far-right AfD in parliament, insisted that Scholz call a special meeting of the Bundestag to discuss the “desolate” security situation, saying that “this is the least that we owe the victims.”
Additionally, Sahra Wagenknecht, the leader of the far-left BSW party, urged that Interior Minister Nancy Faeser provide an explanation for “why so many tips and warnings were ignored beforehand.”
The conspiracy theories of the ultra-right
The terrible tragedy on Friday night, which left a nine-year-old child among the dead and injured receiving treatment at 15 area hospitals, has left Magdeburg in deep sadness and emotions running high.
About 40 of the 205 injured were in severe condition, and medical professionals were battling to save their lives.
Doctors have been working nonstop; one medical professional told the local media that there was “blood on the floor everywhere, people screaming, lots of painkillers being administered.”
Police and prosecutors warned that their investigation into the attack’s motivation was still in its early stages.
In an unreleased 2022 interview with AFP, Abdulmohsen, who was detained at the site beside the severely damaged vehicle, described himself as “a Saudi atheist.”
As an activist, he assisted women in leaving Gulf countries and had previously complained that German authorities were not doing enough to assist them. He also criticized the entry of other Muslim migrants and war refugees into Germany and supported conspiracy theories about the planned “Islamization” of Europe.
He was a harsh critic of Germany’s previous acceptance of many Muslim migrants and wrote on the platform X that he wished former chancellor Angela Merkel could be executed or imprisoned for life. In his previous run-ins with the law, he was first found guilty and fined by a Rostock court in 2013 for “disturbing the public peace by threatening to commit crimes,” according to Der Spiegel.
His place of employment, a clinic that treats criminals with substance addiction issues near Magdeburg, had put him on sick leave since late October.
According to Mina Ahadi, the head of the Central Council of Ex-Muslims, the Saudi suspect “has been terrorizing us for years, so he is not new to us.”
He “doesn’t just hate Muslims, but everyone who doesn’t share his hatred,” she claimed, dubbing him “a psychopath who adheres to ultra-right conspiracy ideologies.”
No Comment! Be the first one.