The suspect in the attack on the Magdeburg Christmas market had already come to the attention of the Berlin judiciary, with the Berlin public prosecutor’s office confirming this on Saturday. Saudi Arabia had already warned Germany about him, according to rbb24.
Taleb A. was due to appear before the Tiergarten district court, which is in Berlin, just the day before the attack. He had appeared at a police station in Berlin in February 2024 to file a report. According to Spiegel, he made confusing statements and was dissatisfied with the behavior of the officers on duty. After a penal order was issued against him for “misusing emergency calls,” Taleb A. appealed the charge in court.
The appeal was to be heard on Thursday, the day before the fatal drive in Magdeburg, but the defendant did not appear, and the appeal was rejected.
Originally from Saudi Arabia, Taleb A. came to Germany in 2006. According to information from the German Press Agency (DPA), the doctor applied for asylum in February 2016, which was decided on in July of the same year. The Saudi citizen was granted asylum at the time as a politically persecuted person.
The motive behind his attack in Magdeburg is thought to be connected with his dissatisfaction with how refugees from Saudi Arabia are treated in Germany, according to a senior public prosecutor. DPA says Taleb A. is known as an Islam-critical activist and describes himself as an ex-Muslim.
BREAKING: 🇩🇪The death toll in the German Christmas market attack rises to 5, including a 9-year-old boy.
200 are injured.
The attacker is an anti-German who is on record threatening to "slaughter" Germans.
"I will make the German nation pay the price of the crimes committed… pic.twitter.com/QSfyYvKDyi
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) December 21, 2024He recently made some confusingly worded accusations against German authorities on social media and in interviews, says rbb24, citing the Tagesschau news portal. Among other things, he accused them of not doing enough to combat Islamism and made explicit threats of violence.
However, the suspected perpetrator was not classified as a threat, and according to information from security circles, the authorities did not know him to be an extremist either. According to information from WDR, NDR, and SZ, several people had reported these threats of violence to the police, including in Magdeburg.
The German terror attack could have been prevented.
We posted this video just 3 days ago.
Maybe if police were deployed to fight real terrorists instead of grandmas, this Christmas market tragedy would've never happened. https://t.co/QYRMhqpur7
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) December 20, 2024At a press conference on Saturday afternoon, the director of the Magdeburg police, Tom-Oliver-Langhans, explained that a criminal complaint had been filed against the suspect in the past. The intention had been to speak to the perpetrator. Why this did not happen is being investigated. The police assume he was a lone perpetrator, with a second perpetrator being ruled out, said a police spokesman.
There have been reports that Taleb A. had sympathized with the AfD via an X account run under his name.
According to the AfD, the alleged 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 Rheinische Post. There was also never an application for membership.
According to Saudi security circles, Saudi Arabia had warned Germany about the suspected perpetrator and had requested his extradition, but Germany did not respond. DPA says this sort of warning about the suspect was sent to the German authorities about a year ago.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) pointed out in a statement on Saturday in Magdeburg that investigations were currently underway, although she did not provide any details. The SPD politician stressed that it was up to the investigating authorities to decide whether there were any warnings or not.
Additional details have indicated that the suspect is a Shiite, a group in Saudia Arabia that makes up some 10 percent of the population in the predominantly Sunni country. There have also been repeated reports of discrimination against Shiites in the country.
