The individual suspected of carrying out a fatal car ramming incident at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, is Taleb Jawad al-Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old Saudi refugee from a Shia background who has described himself as an atheist and “anti-Islam”.
Having resided in Germany since 2006, he worked as a psychiatrist in Bernburg, which is located near Magdeburg.
There are no known connections between him and any jihadist groups.
Mr. Abdulmohsen was apprehended in the vehicle utilized for the attack and is accused of intentionally driving into a crowd of Christmas shoppers in northern Germany, resulting in five deaths and over 200 injuries.
Forensic police are examining the vehicle involved in the incident at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, eastern Germany.
German authorities have stated that the timing of the attack was not coincidental, though they have not classified it as an Islamist incident.
Mr. Abdulmohsen expressed on social media that he viewed himself as a victim of persecution after renouncing Islam and criticized what he claimed to be the Islamization of Germany.
Originating from a Shia family in Hofuf, a village within the predominantly Shia province of al-Ahsa in eastern Saudi Arabia, he emigrated to Germany in 2006 and obtained refugee status a decade later, according to reports from German media and a Saudi activist.
The entrance to Mr. Taleb Jawad al-Abdulmohsen’s residence in Bernburg, eastern Germany.
He lived and worked in Saxony-Anhalt, with Magdeburg approximately 130km west of Berlin.
In a past interview with the German newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau, he mentioned that he had received death threats for renouncing Islam.
In an unpublished interview with AFP from 2022, unrelated to this incident, Mr. Abdulmohsen identified himself as “a Saudi atheist” and remarked that young Saudis were not only escaping the government but were also fleeing from Islam.
A police officer stands guard at the crime scene of the closed Christmas market.
He stated, “Strict Islamic upbringing leads to many problems for Muslims, especially women.”
Some reports have mentioned possible connections between Mr. Abdulmohsen and far-right groups in Germany.
Kown in the Saudi diaspora, he was active in assisting asylum seekers, particularly women.
Taha al-Hajji, the legal director of the Berlin-based European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights, described him as “a psychologically disturbed individual with an inflated sense of self-importance.”
“This is definitely not an attack motivated by Islamist ideology,” he asserted.
According to Mr. al-Hajji, Mr. Abdulmohsen was regarded as “a pariah” within the Saudi community in Germany, despite his efforts to assist asylum seekers.
In a social media post last August, he questioned, “Is there a path to justice in Germany without resorting to blowing up a German embassy or randomly slaughtering German citizens?”
He added, “I have been searching for a peaceful way since January 2019 and have yet to find it. If anyone knows of such a path, please inform me.”
In the same post, he condemned what he termed “the crimes committed by Germany against Saudi refugees and the obstruction of justice, regardless of the evidential support provided.”
