Here’s what is known so far about the man arrested as the suspect in the car attack at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, where five people were killed and around 200 were injured.
Life in Germany
The suspect is a 50-year-old from Saudi Arabia with permanent residency status in Germany, where he has lived for nearly two decades.
Although he has not been officially named by authorities, multiple German media reports refer to him as Taleb Jawad al-Abdulmohsen.
The suspect had been working as a psychiatrist at a specialized rehabilitation clinic for criminals with addictions in Bernburg since March 2020.
Abdulmohsen lived on a quiet street near the center of Bernburg, a town of 30,000 residents, in a three-story apartment block.
Possible Motive
German authorities stated that the suspect was not known to them as an Islamist, according to Reuters.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser declined to comment on the suspect’s motives for the attack or any political affiliations but mentioned that his Islamophobia was “clearly visible.”
Local prosecutor in Magdeburg, Horst Nopens, said that one possible factor in the attack could have been “the suspect’s dissatisfaction with the treatment of Saudi refugees in Germany,” but added that the motive remained unclear.
A Harsh Critic of Islam
Taleb A. appeared in several media interviews in 2019, reporting on his work helping Saudi Arabs who had turned away from Islam to flee to Europe. In a BBC documentary from July 2019, the man speaks about founding the platform wearesaudis.net after becoming an atheist and seeking asylum in Germany.
His account on platform X showed support for the far-right AfD party as well as American billionaire Elon Musk.
