German Christmas market attack suspect charged with murder crime news
A man accused of killing five people and injuring more than 200 by driving his car into a crowd at a German Christmas market has been detained on multiple charges of murder and attempted murder.
The Magdeburg Police Department said in a statement on Sunday that the man had been issued a warrant for pre-trial detention on five counts of murder as well as several counts of attempted murder and grievous bodily harm.
The police statement said those killed were a nine-year-old boy and four women aged 52, 45, 75 and 67. About 40 of the injured had serious or critical injuries.
Authorities said the suspected attacker used emergency exits to reach the Christmas market grounds, where he increased speed and drove into the crowd, killing more than 200 people in a three-minute shootout. He was arrested on the spot itself.
increasing tension
The attack in the central city of Magdeburg on Friday evening shocked Germany and reignited tensions over migration.
The suspect, named as Taleb A., is a 50-year-old psychiatrist from Saudi Arabia with a history of anti-Islamic rhetoric who has lived in Germany for nearly two decades.
The motive for the attack is unclear, but Horst Nopens, a Magdeburg prosecutor, said on Saturday that one possible factor could be the suspect’s frustration over the way Germany deals with Saudi refugees.
The suspected attacker had made death threats to German citizens online and had a history of feuding with state officials, leading German media to question whether the government could have done more to prevent the attack.
News magazine Der Spiegel, citing security sources, said that the Saudi secret service had warned Germany’s spy agency BND a year earlier about a tweet in which Taleb threatened to make Germany “a price” for its treatment of Saudi refugees. “Will have to pay.
And in August he wrote on social media: “Is there a way to justice in Germany without blowing up the German embassy or randomly killing German civilians? … If anyone knows it, please let me know.”
Die Welt daily, citing security sources, reported that German state and federal police conducted a “risk assessment” on Taleb last year, but concluded that he posed “no particular threat”.
promoting the far right
Police reported scuffles and “minor disturbances” during a far-right demonstration in Magdeburg on Saturday night involving about 2,100 people.
Some of the protesters wore black balaclavas, holding a large banner that read “Immigration”, a term used by far-right supporters to describe the mass deportation of immigrants and individuals deemed non-ethnically German. It is a term used for advocacy.
The incident comes ahead of Germany’s decisive elections on February 23, which have drawn sharp criticism from far-right and far-left parties opposed to Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government.
Bernd Baumann, parliamentary head of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), demanded Scholz call a special session of the Bundestag over the “desolate” security situation, arguing that “it is the least we are grateful for the victims “
Meanwhile, Sahra Wagenknecht, head of the far-left Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) party, demanded that Interior Minister Nancy Feser explain why “so many suggestions and warnings in advance were ignored”.
Scholz condemned the “horrible, insane” attack while calling for national unity.
In the past, the suspect has voiced support for the AfD on the social media platform X, as well as for United States billionaire Elon Musk, who has supported the AfD. The party has a strong support base in the former East Germany, where Magdeburg is located. Its members, including chancellor candidate Alice Weidel, planned a rally in Magdeburg on Monday evening.
