A car as a weapon: That brought back memories of the attack by Anis Amri on the Christmas market at Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz in 2016 and a similar attack by an Islamic extremist with a truck in the southern French city of Nice.
In December 2024, a man drove a rented car into a crowd at a Christmas Market in the eastern city of Magdeburg (Saxony-AnhaltSaxony-Anhalt) shortly after 7 p.m., killing a 9-year-old boy and five women aged 45 to 75. More than 300 people were injured, some seriously. The attack lasted one minute and four seconds, according to prosecutors.
The trial of Taleb A*., a 50-year-old man from Saudi Arabia, begins Monday at the Magdeburg Regional Court. The indictment charges him with murder and 338 counts of attempted murder and of committing a “treacherous attack” for “base motives.” Prosecutors said in their statement that they would seek the German legal equivalent of a first-degree murder conviction.
A lone perpetrator?
The media have reported that the accused was dissatisfied and frustrated with the course and outcome of a civil dispute, as well as with the failure of several criminal complaints he had filed.
The indictment presumes that Taleb A. acted alone. “According to the results of the investigation, he planned and prepared the crime in detail over several weeks without the help of accomplices or confidants,” it reads.
The defendant’s profile differs from that of Breitscheidplatz attacker Amri and other presumed Islamic extremists who came to Germany as refugees in recent years. Taleb A. has lived here since 2006 and most recently worked as a doctor in a forensic psychiatry unit for convicted criminals in Bernburg, a town 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Magdeburg.
Christmas market security
Findings from the investigating committee in the state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt suggest that the defendant has long had health problems.
The committee is also looking into why the Christmas market was not adequately secured with bollards. Such concrete blocks have been standard since the attack on Breitscheidplatz.
According to the investigation, the defendant exploited a security gap and drove through the crowd at a speed of up to 46 kilometers per hour (28.5 mph).
The daily Die Welt reports that the attack was a planned act of terrorism. The media outlet quoted an expert opinion from the Salam Center for the prevention of violence and radicalization in Saxony-Anhalt.
An AfD sympathizer?
Reports emerged that the defendant aligns himself with an international right-wing extremist network. The defendant reportedly shared large amounts of content from well-known right-wing figures and conspiracy theorists about the “Islamization of Europe.”
He is also said to be a sympathizer of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which has been investigated for right-wing extremism by the domestic intelligence service.
Security authorities were familiar with the defendant. According to police reports, several “Gefährderansprachen” (threat assessments) were conducted in 2023 and 2024. This refers to verbal or written warnings notifying people that they have classified as potential threats and are being monitored by the police. This applies to individuals who are believed to be capable of carrying out attacks and are designated as dangerous. However, Taleb A. could not be assigned to any category, such as Islamic, right-wing or left-wing extremist.
Because of the large number of victims, the court has rented a newly built lightweight to seat all participants. There are more than 140 co-plaintiffs, and the prosecution has named upwards of 400 witnesses.
In July, it was revealed that the defendant had written letters to injured survivors of his attack from his jail cell, addressing them by name and asking them to forgive him. Many recipients told local news outlets that they felt re-traumatized by this. Authorities said they suspected that Taleb A. had copied the contact details from documents in the possession of his defense lawyers.
Taleb A. has been in custody since the day of the attack. If convicted, he faces life imprisonment for murder, followed by so-called preventive detention. This is designed to protect the general public from dangerous criminals after they have completed their incarceration. It is the most severe sanction available under German criminal law.
This article was originally written in German.
*Editor’s note: DW follows the German press code, which stresses the importance of protecting the privacy of suspected criminals or victims and urges us to refrain from revealing the full names of alleged criminals.
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