Saudi goes on trial for deadly German Christmas market attack

MAGDEBURG,

A Saudi doctor went on trial in Germany on Monday, accused of driving an SUV through a Christmas market in a rampage that killed six people and wounded more than 300.

Taleb Jawad al-Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old psychiatrist, was arrested next to the battered vehicle after the attack on 20 December last year in the eastern city of Magdeburg.

Prosecutors said Abdulmohsen - a critic of Islam and an adherent of far-right views and radical conspiracy theories - was motivated by “dissatisfaction and frustration”.

They said he aimed “to kill as many people as possible” in the attack that shocked the nation just days before Christmas.

The rampage, in which a rented BMW ploughed into the crowd, killed a nine-year-old boy and five women aged between 45 and 75.

Security services later faced tough questions over whether the tragedy could have been prevented, given Abdulmohsen’s history of extreme rhetoric and violent threats.

He faces six counts of murder and 338 counts of attempted murder in a trial expected to run until at least March.

Due to the large number of victims and witnesses, proceedings are being held in a specially constructed temporary courtroom, as no existing facility in Saxony-Anhalt could accommodate the trial.

Abdulmohsen, who will sit in a bullet-proof booth, faces life imprisonment if convicted.

He first arrived in Germany in 2006 and was granted refugee status a decade later.

Once active as a migrant rights campaigner, Abdulmohsen was also a prolific social media user, posting lengthy messages critical of Islam and echoing far-right conspiracy theories.

He frequently clashed with other activists and accused the German government of aiding the country’s supposed “Islamisation”.

Despite concerns over his competence, he had been working as a psychiatrist since 2020, earning the nickname “Dr Google” from some colleagues, according to Der Spiegel.

The magazine also reported that Saudi authorities had tried to warn German intelligence after a social media post in August 2024, in which Abdulmohsen mused about attacking a German embassy or “randomly killing Germans”.

However, his threats were often dismissed as delusional, and his erratic ideology appears to have caused him to slip through the cracks of counter-terror surveillance.

The apparent trigger for the attack was a court ruling against him in a civil dispute with other refugee activists.

The trial will also scrutinise potential security lapses at the market, which should have been reinforced after a similar truck attack in Berlin in 2016.

This year, several German cities have cancelled Christmas markets altogether, citing the high cost of anti-terrorism measures.

The Magdeburg attack was one of a series of violent incidents involving foreign nationals that fuelled heated debate on immigration ahead of Germany’s general election in February.

That election saw the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) secure a record 20 percent of the vote.

The party is now leading opinion polls in Saxony-Anhalt, where Magdeburg is the capital, and observers say it could seize control of a state government for the first time in next year’s elections.