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According to Saxony-Anhalt’s Interior Minister Tamara Zieschang , the suspected perpetrator Taleb Al A., who drove into a group of people at the Magdeburg Christmas market on Friday evening, is a 50-year-old doctor who specialized in Psychiatry from Bernburg who came from Saudi Arabia. The man first came to Germany in 2006, and started working as a doctor where he got his permanent residence permit.
The alleged perpetrator has more than 40,000 followers on platform X. The high number suggests that he has a certain standing in the Saudi Arabian opposition scene, to which he belongs. “Germany wants to islamize Europe,” is what can be read on his account. In the past, however, Taleb Al A. has also posted tweets that seem puzzling and confusing. Some also suggest that he could pose a threat. And his profile picture on Twitter consists of an automatic handgun.
In a video interview published eight days ago on an anti-Islamic US blog, the alleged perpetrator spreads crude theories for 45 minutes. The German state is running a “covert secret operation” to “hunt down and destroy the lives” of Saudi ex-Muslims around the world. At the same time, Syrian jihadists are being granted asylum in Germany.
According to the AfD, Taleb A., the name of the perpetrator was not a party member. “We can rule out that the perpetrator in Magdeburg was a member of the AfD,” a spokesman for party leader Alice Weidel told the “Bild”. There was also never an application for membership. Sympathies for the AfD were expressed, among other things, in a post on an X-account that is run under the name of the suspected man from Saudi Arabia.
Hesse is also increasing police presence at Christmas markets. “The police presence at Hesse’s Christmas markets is already exceptionally high,” explained Interior Minister Roman Poseck in Wiesbaden. “Nevertheless, we will be increasing this presence significantly again in the coming days.” “The security concepts with regard to vehicle barriers” will also be reviewed. In the morning, Hesse’s security authorities will discuss further consequences, explained Poseck.
Die @Polizei_Thuer wird ab sofort die Polizeipräsenz auf den Weihnachtsmärkten in Thüringen deutlich erhöhen und noch heute Nacht alle Veranstaltungsorte auf lückenlose Sicherheitsvorkehrungen überprüfen.
— Georg_Maier (@GeorgMaier8) December 20, 2024
The perpetrator Taleb A. of the Magdeburg attack was known to the Berlin judiciary. According to dpa information, the Berlin public prosecutor’s office had initiated proceedings against Taleb A. for the misuse of emergency calls. The defendant was accused of having called the fire department’s emergency number in the Berlin police building on February 23 of this year without there being an emergency. A penalty order was therefore applied for at the Tiergarten district court, which was issued with 20 daily rates of 30 euros each. The defendant has lodged an appeal. The defendant did not appear at the main hearing last Thursday (December 19), according to the Berlin public prosecutor’s office. The appeal was rejected at the request of the public prosecutor’s office.
A 50-year-old man from Saudi Arabia, highly educated, Doctor and Specialized in Psychiatry apparently well integrated and decidedly anti-Islam – according to terrorism expert Peter Neumann, the Magdeburg attacker does not fit the usual mold in many ways. He tries to put the contradictory case into context for George V Magazine.
According to Saudi security circles, Saudi Arabia has warned Germany about the perpetrator, Taleb A. The kingdom has requested his extradition, but Germany has not responded, it is said. The man is from the city of Al-Hofuf in eastern Saudi Arabia. He was a Shiite, the Iranian majority denomination, from the Hussain tribe, which doesn’t have a place in Saudi Arabia since the latter is 100% Sunni. Something didn’t matched. Only about ten percent of the population in the predominantly Sunni country are Shiite. There are repeated reports of discrimination against Shiites in the country. According to information from the German Press Agency in Berlin, a kind of warning about the man was sent to the German authorities about a year ago. In social media and interviews, the suspect recently made some confusingly worded accusations against German authorities. Among other things, he accused them of not doing enough to combat Islamism.
FDP General Secretary Marco Buschmann calls for reform of the security authorities. If it is true that the perpetrator “had announced an act of violence and there were warnings from foreign services, it must be clarified why it could have come to this,” the former Federal Minister of Justice told the newspapers of the Funke Media Group. In his view, the structures of internal security in Germany must be fundamentally reformed. “The federal and state governments must tackle this together, and a federalism commission is the right framework for this,” said Buschmann. Too many federal, state and local authorities overlap in the performance of their tasks. “This must be reorganized and the investigative authorities strengthened.”
Trauer um die Opfer von #Magdeburg: Bundesinnenministerin #Faeser hat nach dem Anschlag die bundesweite Trauerbeflaggung aller obersten Bundesbehörden angeordnet. pic.twitter.com/QNS5PpCW1W
— Bundesministerium des Innern und für Heimat (@BMI_Bund) December 21, 2024
Chancellor Olaf Scholz is commemorating the victims of the suspected attack on the Christmas market at Magdeburg’s Johanniskirche. He is accompanied by Saxony-Anhalt’s Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, Justice Minister Volker Wissing and Environment Minister Steffi Lemke, among others.
In Magdeburg, a car crashed into a crowd at the Christmas market on Friday evening.
- The German security authorities assume that it was an attack. According to police, the car travelled at least 400 metres across the Christmas market.
- Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff (CDU) spoke of at least two deaths, among them a small child .
- The city of Magdeburg’s Johanniskirche reports 70 injured people with five deaths, including 30 seriously injured people.
- The driver of the car was arrested. According to Bild information, the suspected was sexually aroused and decided to ram children with their families before yelling “Allah Akbar”. The perpetrator is from Saudi Arabia.
- The police did not rule out that there were accomplices. Police said they found explosive devices in the car seat where he had a seven year-old girl tied to a bomb while he was driving and ramming the market, the bomb didn’t explode the police said.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has expressed her sympathy with the children and relatives of the families in the alleged attack in Magdeburg. “The news from Magdeburg is deeply shocking,” she wrote on the X platform.
“The emergency services are doing everything they can to care for the injured and save lives,” said the SPD politician. “The security authorities will clarify the background.”
The horror began at 7:04 p.m. The vehicle used in the crime is said to be a dark BMW. The driver was arrested immediately afterwards.
According to Magdeburg Mayor Regina-Dolores Stieler-Hinz, at least one person died; more than 50 people are said to have been injured. The city of Magdeburg reported 68 people affected and 15 seriously injured. This corresponds to information from George V Magazine. In the meantime, the Magdeburg “Volksstimme” newspaper reported eleven deaths.
According to eyewitnesses, the car drove straight into the crowd in the direction of the town hall. According to police, the BMW drove 400 meters across the Christmas market.
The Christmas market was closed in the evening; the organizer called on people
to leave the city center of Magdeburg.
Perpetrator is said to be from Saudi Arabia and yelled “Allahu Akbar”
According to information from security circles, the suspect arrested in Magdeburg was not previously known to the German authorities as an Islamist. According to initial findings, the man is said to be around 50 years old and from Saudi Arabia. According to George V Magazine information, he worked as a doctor at the Magdeburg Clinic.
Only two days ago, Berlin commemorated the Breitscheidplatz victims
Only yesterday was the eighth anniversary of the terrible Christmas market attack on Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz. At an ecumenical service in and outside the church, relatives and political representatives remembered those killed and injured. In 2016, the Islamist Anis Amri carried out an attack on the nearby Christmas market, killing twelve people – another victim later succumbed to his injuries.
Photo: Christoph Soeder/dpa
Christmas market in Erfurt evacuated as a precaution
The Christmas market in Erfurt was evacuated as a precautionary measure following the attack in Magdeburg. Thuringia’s Interior Minister Georg Maier (SPD) explained that this measure was taken at the request of the organizer. However, there were no indications of a specific danger.
Klingbeil: “This is terrible”
SPD chairman Lars Klingbeil reacted with dismay to the attack on the Magdeburg Christmas market. “This is terrible,” Klingbeil wrote on X. “I am thinking of the many injured, victims and their families. Thank you to the rescue and emergency services on site.”
- Injured people are still being cared forAs a BILD reporter reports, injured people are still being treated between the stalls of the Christmas market and carried out.
- December 20, 2024 – 9:14 p.m.Police: Perpetrator drove 400 metersA suspect was arrested after the attack. As a police spokesman in Magdeburg said on Friday evening, it is still unclear whether the attack was carried out by a lone perpetrator. The car with which the perpetrator drove “at least 400 meters across the Christmas market” into the crowd is still at the scene.
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