A German court has ordered the pre-trial detention of a Saudi national, who was apprehended on suspicion of perpetrating a fatal attack at a Christmas market in Magdeburg last Friday.
The attack resulted in the deaths of five individuals and left over 200 others injured when a vehicle struck a crowd at the market.
The accused, identified as Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, faces charges including five counts of murder, multiple attempted murders, and bodily injury.
Horst Nopens, the local prosecutor in Magdeburg, indicated that the suspect’s potential dissatisfaction with the Government’s immigration policies may have contributed to the attack.
The 50-year-old psychiatrist had previously issued online death threats against German citizens and had a record of disputes with government entities.
According to news magazine Der Spiegel, security sources revealed that the Saudi secret service had alerted Germany’s BND (Federal Intelligence Service) about a tweet from Abdulmohsen a year prior, in which he threatened that Germany would suffer a “price” for its treatment of Saudi refugees.
Furthermore, the daily Die Welt reported, citing security sources, that both state and federal police in Germany had conducted a “risk assessment” of Abdulmohsen last year, concluding that he posed “no specific danger.”
Five people lost their lives and more than 200 were injured in the incident on Friday.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz condemned the Friday’s attack in Magdeburg as “terrible” and “insane,” calling for national unity amidst rising political tensions as Germany approaches elections on February 23.
He emphasized the importance of unity, stating, “we must stick together, link arms, and ensure that our coexistence is not defined by hatred, but by our community’s aspiration for a shared future.”
Read more: Vigils held as Germany mourns the five victims of the market attack. What we know about the Christmas market attack suspect. ‘Torn from my side’ – the horror of the German Christmas market attack.
However, as the media in Germany examined Abdulmohsen’s background and investigators remained tight-lipped, criticism from far-right and far-left parties—already adversarial to the Scholz administration—intensified.
Bernd Baumann, the parliamentary leader of the far-right AfD, urged Chancellor Scholz to convene a special Bundestag session addressing the “dismal” security situation, asserting that “this is the least we owe the victims.”
Sahra Wagenknecht, the leader of the far-left BSW party, demanded an explanation from Interior Minister Nancy Faeser regarding “why so many warnings and tips were overlooked beforehand.”
Vigils held as Germany mourns the victims of the attack.
Magdeburg is in deep mourning following the attack on Friday evening, which claimed the life of a nine-year-old child among other casualties, with patients treated in 15 regional hospitals.
Out of the 205 injured, approximately 40 are in critical condition, with medical teams fighting to save their lives.
A spontaneous memorial was established by grieving families and local residents at a church overlooking Magdeburg’s Christmas market yesterday.
Initially, as people placed flowers in front of the church during the early hours, they expressed profound sorrow and grief.
Andrea Reis, 57, arrived with her daughter Julia, 34, and reflected on their narrow escape.
It was solely because her daughter opted to keep walking around the market rather than stopping to eat that they avoided being caught in the path of the car that surged through the market, she recounted.
“All I can hear are the terrible sounds, the children calling ‘mama, papa,’ and ‘help me’ – they keep replaying in my mind now,” Reis said, tears streaming down her face.
Another young woman sobbed, doubled over with grief as an older couple embraced her.
Throughout the day, politicians, including Chancellor Olaf Scholz, visited to lay flowers at the makeshift memorial.
Additional reporting from Reuters.
