‘Islamophobe’ Saudi doctor held over Christmas market attack

The man suspected of killing five people, including a-nine year-old, during an horrific Christmas market car attack in the German town of Magdeburg has been named.

People lay flowers at a makeshift memorial near the shuttered Christmas market the day after a terror attack that has left five people dead. Picture: Getty

The man suspected of fatally mowing down five people, including a-nine year-old, during an horrific Christmas market car attack in Magdeburg has been named as Taleb Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old psychiatrist who lives in a nearby German town.

Taleb Jawad Al Abdulmohsen. Picture: AFP

Abdulmohsen, originally from Saudi Arabia, was working at a German hospital and was involved in aiding refugees and asylum seekers into Germany.

He had given an interview earlier this month with the RAIR Foundation – a grassroots, activist organisation –which describes itself as “leading a movement to reclaim our Republic from the network of individuals and organisations waging war on Americans, our Constitution, our borders and our Judeo-Christian values.”

Firefighters attend a church service one day after a car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg, eastern Germany. Picture: AFP

A policeman walks through the shuttered Christmas market. Picture: Getty

In the interview, Abdulmohsen raged about a perceived two-tier asylum system in Germany where Syrian refugees were favoured above Saudi Arabian refugees, especially those fleeing Sharia-based death sentences.

Abdulmohsen’s alleged mirroring of known jihadi techniques – causing mass casualties and terrorising the public at a Christmas market – has perplexed analysts.

Terrorism expert Professor Peter Neumann said: “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 (Alternative for Germany) and wants to punish Germany for its tolerance towards Islamists — that really wasn’t on my radar”.

Horst Walter Nopens, head of the Magdeburg Public Prosecutor’s office on Saturday that the suspect may have been unhappy with Germany’s treatment of Saudi Arabian refugees.

His social media posts indicated some anti-Islam views and he reposted support for the AfD. German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said he was an Islamophobe.

German Chancellor Olaf Sholz said more than 200 had been injured and warned the death toll may rise.

“What a terrible act it is to injure and kill so many people there with such brutality. Almost 40 are so seriously injured that we must be very worried about them.”

Earlier, he pledged that Germany would respond “with the full force of the law” over “the terrible attack that injured and killed so many people” close to the anniversary of a deadly 2016 jihadist attack on a Berlin Christmas market.

Right to left: German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Saxony-Anhalt state Premier Reiner Haseloff during a prayer ceremony at the Magdeburg Dom church. Picture: Getty

Hospital authorities confirmed the five deaths, and that 41 people have been critically injured and 90 seriously injured. Another 80 people suffered minor injuries.

It has been reported that Saudi Arabia had notified Germany of the radical views held by Abdulmohsen with as many as four warnings, the first in 2007 soon after he had sought asylum in Germany. CNN reported three alerts were given to the German intelligence services and one to the foreign ministry mainly centred around Abdulmohsen’s attempts to entice Saudis to leave the country and abandon their religion. Saudi Arabia had requested his extradition from Germany in 2007, based on his radical views, but this request was refused.