Germany Magdeburg Christmas market attacker: What we all know to date

5 individuals, together with a nine-year-old boy, had been killed when a person drove a automobile right into a crowded Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, on December 20.

Greater than 200 individuals had been injured within the assault on Friday night, together with about 40 individuals who sustained critical or essential accidents.

On Tuesday, Germany’s president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier used his conventional Christmas tackle to the nation to name for nationwide unity.

He stated: “A darkish shadow hangs over this Christmas.”

“Hatred and violence should not have the ultimate phrase. Let’s not permit ourselves to be pushed aside. Let’s stand collectively.”

Authorities reported that the suspect used emergency exit routes to entry the Christmas market grounds, the place he ploughed by the gang throughout a three-minute rampage. The person surrendered himself to the police on the scene.

The Magdeburg police division stated in a press release on Sunday that the suspect has been positioned in investigative detention on the suspicion of 5 counts of homicide and a number of counts of tried homicide and grievous bodily hurt.

Right here’s what we all know concerning the suspect:

Who’s the suspect?

The suspect has been recognized as Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old psychiatrist from Saudi Arabia who has lived in Germany for nearly twenty years.

He’s employed at a clinic specialising in treating offenders with dependancy points however has been on sick go away for the reason that finish of October.

He has described himself as a “Saudi atheist” and an activist essential of Islam who has helped former Muslims flee from Gulf international locations.

Al-Abdulmohsen has been energetic on-line, criticising Germany for accepting too many Muslim refugees and supporting far-right conspiracy theories concerning the “Islamisation” of Europe.

Der Spiegel information journal reported that al-Abdulmohsen was a supporter of the anti-immigrant Various for Germany (AfD) celebration.

Mina Ahadi, chairwoman of Germany’s Central Council of Ex-Muslims, advised the German every day newspaper Tageszeitung that the suspect was identified to the council and he had tried to ship a donation about eight years in the past.

She recalled his behaviour as “aggressive” and stated she felt like she was “coping with a mentally sick particular person”.

Ahadi wrote on X on Saturday that al-Abdulmohsen had “terrorised” the council for a number of years.

“His delusional concepts went to date that he assumed that even organisations essential of Islamism had been a part of the Islamist conspiracy,” she stated.

What have the authorities stated?

German Inside Minister Nancy Faeser advised reporters on Saturday: “At this stage, the one factor we are able to say with certainty is that the perpetrator was clearly Islamophobic. We are able to already verify that. Every part else is topic to additional investigations.”

On Sunday she stated the attacker did “not match any earlier sample” as a result of “he acted like an Islamist terrorist though ideologically he was clearly an enemy of Islam”.

Parliamentary committee hearings shall be held on December 30 into the assault by which Faeser and the heads of Germany’s home and overseas intelligence companies will reply questions, a senior lawmaker advised the AFP information company.

What was the suspect’s motive?

Magdeburg Prosecutor Horst Nopens stated on Saturday that one issue contributing to the suspect’s motives could possibly be his frustration with Germany’s dealing with of Saudi refugees.

The suspect had issued on-line loss of life threats focusing on German residents and had a document of conflicts with state authorities.

In response to a Der Spiegel information journal report which quoted safety sources, the Saudi secret service alerted the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), Germany’s overseas intelligence company, a 12 months earlier a couple of tweet by which al-Abdulmohsen warned that Germany would face penalties for its therapy of Saudi refugees.

In August he wrote on social media: “Is there a path to justice in Germany with out blowing up a German embassy or randomly slaughtering German residents?… If anybody is aware of it, please let me know.”

Quoting safety sources, Die Welt newspaper reported that the German state and federal police carried out a “threat evaluation” on al-Abdulmohsen final 12 months however concluded he posed “no particular hazard”.

What else is understood concerning the suspect’s motives?

Felix Neumann, coverage adviser on safety points at Germany’s Konrad Adenauer Basis, advised Al Jazeera it was initially assumed that the incident was “an Islamist assault because it was similar to the assault on Breitscheidplatz in 2016” when a truck intentionally drove right into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 individuals.

“Wanting on the feedback he made on-line, nevertheless, it’s now fairly unlikely that it was an Islamist assault,” Neumann stated.

“The perpetrator was very essential of Islam and shared right-wing extremist narratives on his X account. Additional investigations will present what motivated him in the long run, however the idea of ‘salad bar extremism’ might apply right here.

“Which means that people individually pick these elements which might be believable for them, however there isn’t any uniform, coherent ideology.”

May the federal government have carried out extra to stop the assault?

Neumann stated: “Germany is a federal system, which has varied benefits, however sharing info will not be certainly one of them.

“International intelligence companies and people who supplied details about the perpetrator’s potential hazard should now be investigated, and it have to be established the place there have been errors within the chain of data sharing.

“This should then be optimised in order that potential risk analyses will be handed on higher between the authorities.”