Attack in Magdeburg Alleged perpetrator: doctor, critic of Islam and fan of Musk
He was not considered an Islamist by the authorities and presented himself as a fierce critic of Islam. He fought for women's rights and worked as a doctor. But then things took a turn.
21.12.2024, 17:13
21.12.2024, 17:43
dpa
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- A car drove into a crowd of visitors at the Christmas market in Magdeburg. 200 people were injured, 5 people died.
- The suspect, Taleb A., is a 50-year-old from Saudi Arabia who first came to Germany in 2006. He has an indefinite residence permit.
- A. worked as a specialist in psychiatry in Saxony-Anhalt. He worked in the penal institution in Bernburg.
- A. is known as an activist critical of Islam. He recently made accusations against the German authorities on social media, some of which were formulated in a confused manner. Among other things, he accused them of not doing enough to combat Islamism.
- In February 2016, A. applied for asylum, which was decided on in July of the same year. The Saudi citizen was granted asylum as a politically persecuted person.
On social media, he presented himself as a vehement critic of Islam and Saudi Arabia: however, he recently also expressed criticism of the German authorities and accused them of "secret operations". Taleb A., the suspected driver who ran over numerous people with a car at the Magdeburg Christmas market, killing at least five and injuring 200, some of them seriously, has recently undergone a transformation.
According to previous findings, the man was not known to the authorities as an Islamist, said Saxony-Anhalt Minister President Reiner Haseloff (CDU) on the evening of the terrible crime. On social networks, the 50-year-old doctor appeared to be a radical critic of Islam and an activist for the interests of women from Saudi Arabia in particular. Before the crime, Taleb A. had more than 40,000 followers on the "X" platform and had also given several interviews on the situation of women in Saudi Arabia in recent years.
Specialist in psychiatry
According to Haseloff, Taleb A. came to Germany as early as 2006. Most recently, he lived in Bernburg, a small town just under 50 kilometers from Magdeburg. According to a spokeswoman for the operating company Salus, he worked in a correctional facility. He had worked with addicted offenders and had been working at the facility since March 2020. "He had not been on duty since the end of October 2024 due to vacation and illness," the company said in a statement. "We have been supporting the work of the investigating authorities in every possible way since the night hours." According to dpa, the Saxony-Anhalt Ministry of Health had requested the man's personnel file during the night and handed it over to the investigating authorities.
In June 2019, an interview with Taleb A. appeared in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: "I am the most aggressive critic of Islam in history," the man said at the time. In addition to his posts on social networks, Taleb A. said he advised women from Saudi Arabia and other countries on asylum issues and also put them in touch with international media.
Saudi Arabia warned Germany according to its own statements
According to Saudi security circles, Saudi Arabia had warned Germany about the man. The kingdom had requested his extradition. Germany has not responded to this, it is said. According to the security circles, he comes from the city of Al-Hofuf in eastern Saudi Arabia and was a Shiite. Only around ten percent of the population in the predominantly Sunni country are Shiite. There are repeated reports of discrimination against Shiites in the country.
"We can only say with certainty that the perpetrator was obviously Islamophobic," said Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) the day after the crime in Magdeburg. Everything else was the subject of the investigation. The SPD politician emphasized that it was up to the investigating authorities to determine what warnings had or had not been given in advance.
Help for Saudi women and conspiracy theories
For some time now, the Saudi doctor's appearance on social networks has changed and become more aggressive. "I seriously expect to die this year," Taleb A. wrote on his X account in May of this year. "I will bring about justice at any cost." The German authorities would block all paths to justice. It was not initially clear whether the Saudi really wrote all the posts himself. One post that was published on the account around the time of the attack caused some confusion.
Only around ten days ago, the American platform "RAIR", which describes itself as an anti-Muslim grassroots organization, published an interview with the doctor lasting more than 45 minutes. In it, he accuses the German police of carrying out "secret operations" and deliberately destroying the lives of Saudi asylum seekers who have renounced Islam, among other things. He also said he was a fan of X-owner Elon Musk and the AfD, which pursued the same goals as him. At the same time, however, he described himself as politically left-wing. "I'm not on the right, I'm a leftist."
During the interrogations, Taleb A. also commented on a possible motive, said Horst Walter Nopens, the senior public prosecutor in Magdeburg. According to the current state of the investigation, this could possibly be dissatisfaction with the treatment of refugees from Saudi Arabia in Germany. According to dpa information, the doctor himself, who had already been living in Germany for ten years at the time, applied for asylum in February 2016 and a decision was made in July of the same year. The Saudi citizen was granted asylum as a politically persecuted person at the time.