A driver who rammed a car into a crowded Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, killing at least five people and injuring more than 200, has been identified by authorities as a 50-year-old Saudi Arabian citizen who had lived in Germany for more than a decade and worked as a doctor.
Authorities are working to determine the motive of the attacker, who had a history of making anti-Islam statements and said that he had helped people, particularly women, flee Saudi Arabia.
The suspect first came to Germany in 2006 and had permanent residency in the country, according to Tamara Zieschang, the interior minister of Saxony-Anhalt state, of which Magdenburg is the capital. Zieschang said the man worked as a doctor in Bernburg, a small town about 25 miles south of Magdeburg.
The man is yet to be formally identified, but German media have named him as Taleb A., following the convention in Germany of withholding the full name of suspects in criminal cases.
He was arrested and is thought to have acted alone, according to German authorities.
In a now deleted feed on X apparently belonging to Taleb A., he made anti-Islam statements and self-identified as a Saudi dissident. He spoke openly about renouncing his Islamic faith, expressed sympathy for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and accused Germany of promoting the Islamization of the country.
Germany welcomed more than 1 million refugees and asylum seekers in 2015 and 2016, mostly from the Middle East. Originally praised for opening its doors, Germany has seen support wane for the policy with the rise of the anti-migrant AfD.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry issued a statement condemning the attack after it emerged the suspect was a Saudi national.
The first warning came in 2007 and was connected to concerns held by Saudi authorities that Taleb A. had expressed radical views of varying kinds, the source said.
Saudi Arabia considers the suspect a fugitive and requested his extradition from Germany between 2007 and 2008, the source said, adding that German authorities refused, citing concerns for the man’s safety should he return.
Saudi authorities alleged that the man had harassed Saudis abroad who opposed his political views. They also noted that he had become a supporter of the AfD, and had developed radical anti-Islamic views, the source said.
The German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser on Saturday described the man as “an Islamophobe.” She gave few other details and said that the investigation was at the very beginning, with security authorities looking into the background of the attack. The authorities have not yet released any information about a motive.
Taleb A. appears to be the same man who was in touch with media in the past about his efforts to help people leave Saudi Arabia.
Some experts have already pointed out that the man was an unusual suspect in a mass casualty attack of this type.
“After 25 years in this ‘business’ you think nothing could surprise you anymore. But a 50-year-old Saudi ex-Muslim who lives in East Germany, loves the AfD and wants to punish Germany for its tolerance towards Islamists — that really wasn’t on my radar,” Peter Neumann, professor of security studies at King’s College London, wrote on X.