BERLIN (Reuters) – Here is what we know so far about the man arrested as the suspected driver of Friday's car attack at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg that killed five people and injured around 200. .
GERMAN LIFE
The suspect is a 50-year-old from Saudi Arabia and has permanent residency in Germany, where he has lived for nearly two decades.
The suspect has not been identified by authorities. Many German media reports refer to him as Taleb A.
The suspect has been working as a psychiatrist at a rehabilitation clinic for drug addicts in Bernburg since March 2020. “Since the end of October 2024, he has been absent due to vacation and illness,” the center said in a statement.
He lived on a quiet street near the center of Bernburg, a town of 30,000 people, south of Magdeburg, in a three-story building.
PURPOSE EXISTING
German authorities said earlier that the suspect was not known to authorities as an Islamist.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser declined to comment on the suspect's motives for the attack or his political affiliation but said his Islamophobia was “clear”.
Magdeburg's local prosecutor, Horst Nopens, said a possible motive for the attack was suspected “dissatisfaction with the treatment of Saudi refugees in Germany” but added that the motive remained unclear.
REMOTE-FRIENDLY PRODUCTS
Taleb A. appeared in a number of media interviews in 2019 reporting on his activist work helping Saudi Arabian apostates flee to Europe.
In a BBC documentary from July 2019, the man talks about setting up the aresaudis.net platform after becoming an atheist and claiming asylum in Germany.
He is a fierce critic of Islam in this interview, telling the German newspaper FAZ in June of that year: “There are no good Muslims.”
His account on the social media platform X, verified by Reuters, showed support for the Alternative anti-immigration party in Germany (AfD), and US billionaire Elon Musk, who criticized German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and showed support. the AfD.