By Rachel More
BERLIN (Reuters) – A man suspected of plowing a car through crowds at a German Christmas market in an attack that killed five people and injured scores will face multiple murder and attempted murder charges, police said on Sunday with.
The attack on Friday evening in downtown Magdeburg shocked the country and sparked tensions over the explosive immigration issue.
The suspect in custody is a 50-year-old psychiatrist from Saudi Arabia with a history of anti-Islamic rhetoric who has lived in Germany for almost two decades. The motive for the attack remained unclear.
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At a right-wing extremist demonstration with around 2,100 participants in Magdeburg on Saturday evening, there were scuffles and some “minor unrest,” according to the police. They added that criminal proceedings would follow, but gave no details.
Demonstrators, some wearing black balaclavas, held a large banner reading “Remigration,” a term popular among far-right supporters who seek the mass deportation of immigrants and people not considered ethnically German.
Other residents gathered to pay their respects to the dead.
A judge ordered the suspect, identified in German media as Taleb A., to be remanded in custody on five counts of murder and several counts of attempted murder and grievous bodily harm, police said in a statement.
Reuters could not immediately determine whether the suspect had an attorney.
Those killed were a nine-year-old boy and four women aged 52, 45, 75 and 67, the police statement said. Among the wounded, around 40 suffered serious or life-threatening injuries.
According to authorities, the suspected attacker drove through emergency exits onto the Christmas market grounds, where he sped up, plunged into the crowd and hit more than 200 people in a three-minute attack. He was arrested at the scene.
German authorities have not named the suspect and German media reports have given his name only as Taleb A., in line with local data protection laws.
Motive unclear
As authorities investigated a possible motive, Magdeburg prosecutor Horst Nopens said Saturday that a possible factor could be the suspect's frustration with Germany's treatment of Saudi refugees.
The suspect had been highly critical of Islam in the past and appeared in several media interviews in 2019 in which he reported on his work helping Saudi Arabians who had turned away from Islam to escape to Europe.
On the social media platform
The AfD has strong support in the former GDR, where Magdeburg is located. Opinion polls put the country in second place nationally ahead of elections in February.
Its members, including Chancellor candidate Alice Weidel, planned a rally in Magdeburg for Monday evening.
Saudi Arabia had repeatedly raised concerns with Germany about the suspect's social media posts, according to a Saudi source and a German security source.
The Christian Democrats, Germany's largest opposition party, and the Free Democrats, which were part of the coalition government until its collapse last month, called for improvements to Germany's security apparatus, including better coordination between federal and state authorities.
“The background needs to be clarified. Above all, we must do more to prevent such crimes, especially since in this case there were obviously concrete warnings and tips that were ignored,” said Sahra Wagenknecht, chairwoman of the left-wing BSW party, to the Welt Zeitung.
The BSW, a new political party with far-left roots, also condemns uncontrolled immigration and has gained significant support in the run-up to the February 23 elections.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose Social Democrats are in decline in opinion polls, attended a service for the victims in Magdeburg Cathedral on Saturday.
(Reporting by Rachel More, Editing by Susan Fenton and Frances Kerry)
