The suspect in the Magdeburg Christmas market massacre had boasted to the BBC about a website he created to help former Muslims seek asylum in the West.
Psychologist Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, 50, attacked a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg last night, leaving at least two dead and almost 70 injured.
Al-Abdulmohsen, an anti-Islamic doctor from Saudi Arabia, came to Germany in 2006 and worked to help former Muslims, particularly women, flee their countries after turning their backs on Islam.
He created a website called wearesaudis.net to provide information on “escape routes” for people leaving Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region.
His plight helping asylum seekers settle in Europe was documented in a 2019 interview with the BBC World Service, in which it was revealed that he was forced to leave his home country due to his atheism.
“If I have time, I dedicate, you know, totally helping Saudi asylum seekers between 10 and 16 hours a day, if I have time,” he told the station at the time.
He also explained that most of the people who approached him for help through his website were Muslim women looking to escape their strict families.
Meanwhile, analysis of his social media reveals tweets in support of the German anti-immigration AfD party.
The suspect in the Magdeburg Christmas market massacre boasted to the BBC about a website he created to help former Muslims seek asylum in the West.
Psychologist Taleb al-Abdulmohsen told the BBC that he was forced to leave Saudi Arabia because of his atheism.
Footage taken minutes after the crash, which occurred around 7 p.m., showed Taleb al-Abdulmohsen lying on the ground next to the wrecked BMW.
He has also made comments supporting Elon Musk, far-right thug Tommy Robinson and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
His biography X says: ‘Saudi military opposition. Germany persecutes Saudi women asylum seekers, inside and outside Germany, to destroy their lives. “Germany wants to Islamize Europe.”
The posts include retweets of graphic videos, including one of a young Muslim woman who was allegedly stoned to death “because she had an affair with a young man outside of marriage.”
Another was a retweet of a post that simply said, “Can you find anything positive about Islam?”
In videos posted hours before the attack, he claimed that German authorities were opening his mail and stealing items, including a USB flash drive.
“I consider Germans, as citizens, responsible for the persecution I am facing,” he said in a video.
“Currently in this country, the nation actively criminally persecuting critics of Islam is the German nation,” he said in another.
He also appears to be an AfD supporter. In June, he retweeted party leader Alice Weidel, writing with typos: “The left is crazy. “We need the AfD to protect the police from them.”
German police can be seen pointing their guns at Abdulmohsen shortly before his arrest yesterday after he rammed a car into a crowd of people at the Magdeburg Christmas market.
Forensic police inspect the car that plowed into a crowd at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, on December 21, 2024.
German police officers stand guard next to their vehicle at the scene of a vehicle attack on the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, on December 21, 2024. According to Magdeburg police, at least two people were confirmed dead, Dozens were injured and the suspect, a Saudi citizen, was detained.
Police vans and ambulances stand next to the annual Christmas market in the city center following a possible terrorist incident on December 20.
Firefighters work at a cordoned-off Christmas market where a car plowed into a crowd on Friday night in Magdeburg.
Overturned wheelie bins and debris are seen as police officers walk through a closed Christmas market where a car crashed into a crowd, injuring more than 60 people the night before.
A mourner lights a candle today near the Christmas market, where a car crashed into a crowd killing at least two and injuring more than 60 people the night before. At least two people died and more than 60 were injured
He also retweeted far-right AfD activist Naomi Seibt with the following quote: ‘Tyranny is based on the docility of cowards. I choose to be brave.’
Police have not identified any official motive for the attack.
Magdeburg authorities say two people were killed, including a small child, while 68 people were injured in the rampage, 15 of them seriously.
The suspect was arrested after the accident that took place at 7:04 p.m. in the city of Magdeburg, according to unidentified government sources in the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt who spoke to the dpa news agency.
A search of his name and work details revealed that he was interviewed by the regional newspaper, Frankfurter Rundschau, in 2019.
‘He came to Germany as a visiting doctor during his training as a psychotherapist and later sought asylum here because he had been threatened with death for turning away from Islam. “The 44-year-old man is recognized as a political refugee,” the newspaper wrote about him five years ago.
She said in a 2019 interview with the newspaper: ‘Nine out of ten people from Saudi Arabia who ask me about the asylum system are women.
Bild reported that the car was driven “at least 400 meters (1,300 feet) through the Christmas market,” according to a police spokesperson. A car can be seen hitting a crowd of people
‘Other asylum activists report similar figures. This may be because, for Saudi women, asylum is the only path to justice. Even if a woman is not oppressed, her fate depends on her male guardian.
‘There are women who say they have good husbands who do not oppress them, but they wonder what will happen if the man dies.
‘If the new man hits her, she won’t get any help. A woman is only protected if she has powerful men in her family.
Just five days before carrying out the attack, Al-Abdulmohsen gave an interview to the right-wing RAIR Foundation in which he said: “If a Syrian citizen applies for asylum in Germany, the probability of being granted asylum is 99. 8%… Whereas if a Saudi citizen applies for asylum in Germany, that probability is only 70%, and I know personally that many of those rejected are ex-Muslims.
“Germany is welcoming Syrians, including many Islamists, and at the same time rejecting Saudi apostates, people who are truly fleeing Sharia-based death sentences.”
Last night several police officers were seen surrounding the man with guns drawn while shouting at him. Police officers were also seen shooing away the growing crowd around the arrest incident, while a police officer crouched over him with a torch.
“From what we currently know, he was a lone attacker, so we do not believe there is any additional danger to the city,” he added.