German authorities said they received tips last year about the suspect in a car attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg as more details emerged on Sunday about the five deaths.
Have authorities identified the suspect as a Saudi doctor who arrived in Germany in 2006 and was granted permanent residency. Police have not publicly named the suspect, in accordance with privacy rules, but some German news media identified him as Taleb A. and reported that he was a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy.
Authorities say he does not fit the usual profile of perpetrators of extremist attacks. He described himself as an ex-Muslim who was highly critical of Islam and expressed support for the far-right anti-immigrant party Alternative for Germany (AfD) in many social media posts.
He is being held while authorities investigate him.
The head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Holger Münch, said in an interview on German broadcaster ZDF on Saturday that his office received a tip from Saudi Arabia in November 2023, which prompted authorities to launch “appropriate investigative measures.”
German newspaper FAZ said it interviewed the suspect in 2019 and described him as an anti-Islam activist.
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“The man also published a large number of messages on the internet. He also had contact with various authorities, uttering insults and even threats. However, it was not known that he had committed any violent acts,” said Münch, whose office is the German bureau. equivalent of the FBI.
However, he said the warnings turned out to be very unspecific.
The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees also said on Saturday on X that it had received a tip about the suspect in the late summer of last year.
“This was taken seriously, as were all other tips,” the office said. But it also noted that it is not an investigative authority and that it has referred the information to the responsible authorities. It did not provide further details.
The Central Council of Ex-Muslims said in a statement that the suspect had “terrorized” them for years as they expressed shock over the attack.
“He apparently shared beliefs from the far-right spectrum of the AfD and believed in a large-scale conspiracy aimed at the Islamization of Germany. His delusions went so far that he assumed that even organizations critical of Islamism were part of the Islamic conspiracy.” the statement said.
The group’s president, Mina Ahadi, said in the same statement: “At first we suspected that he could be a mole in the Islamist movement. But now I think he is a psychopath who adheres to ultra-right conspiracy ideologies.”
Police in Magdeburg, the capital of Saxony-Anhalt state, said on Sunday that the dead were four women aged 45, 52, 67 and 75, as well as a 9-year-old boy.
Authorities said 200 people were injured, 41 of whom are in serious condition. They were treated in several hospitals in Magdeburg, about 130 kilometers west of Berlin, and beyond.
The suspect was brought before a judge on Saturday evening, who ordered that he be held in custody behind closed doors on suspicion of murder and attempted murder. He is facing possible charges.
The horrors caused by yet another act of mass violence in Germany make it likely that migration will remain a key issue as the country heads towards snap elections on February 23. A deadly knife attack in Solingen in August brought the issue to the top of the agenda. agenda, prompting Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government to tighten border security measures.
Right-wing figures from across Europe have criticized German authorities for allowing high levels of migration in the past and for what they now see as security shortcomings.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbánwho has been known for years for his strong anti-migration stance, used the attack in Germany to lash out against the European Union’s migration policy, describing it as a “terrorist act.”
At an annual press conference in Budapest on Saturday, Orbán emphasized that “there is no doubt that there is a link between the changed world in Western Europe, the migration flowing there, especially illegal migration and acts of terrorism.”
Orbán vowed to “fight back” against EU migration policies, claiming without evidence that “Brussels wants Magdeburg to happen to Hungary.”
