German authorities said they received information last year about the suspect in a car attack at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, with more details emerging on Sunday about the five people killed.
The authorities have identified The suspect As a Saudi doctor, he arrived in Germany in 2006 and obtained permanent residency. Police have not publicly named the suspect, in line with privacy rules, but some German media have identified him as Student A. She stated that he specializes in psychiatry and psychotherapy.
Authorities say he does not fit the usual profile of extremist attackers. He described himself as a former Muslim who is strongly critical of Islam, and in several social media posts expressed his support for the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
He is being held while authorities investigate him.
The head of the Federal Criminal Police Office, Holger Münch, said in an interview with German radio ZDF, on Saturday, that his office received a report from Saudi Arabia in November 2023, which prompted the authorities to launch “appropriate investigative measures.”
“The man also made a large number of posts online. He was also in contact with various authorities, making insults and even threats. He was not known to have committed violent acts,” said Münch, whose office is the German equivalent of the FBI.
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The warnings, however, proved to be entirely non-specific, he said.
The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees also said on Saturday that it had received information about the suspect in the late summer of last year.
“This has been taken very seriously, as have all the other numerous tips,” the office said. But it also indicated that it is not an investigating authority and that it referred information to the responsible authorities. No other details were given.
The Central Council of Ex-Muslims said in a statement that the suspect had “terrorized” them for years, expressing shock at the attack.
He appears to have shared the beliefs of the far-right spectrum of the Alternative for Germany party, and believed in a wide-ranging conspiracy aimed at Islamizing Germany. “His delusional ideas went so far that he assumed that even organizations critical of Islamism were part of the Islamist conspiracy,” the statement said.
The group’s head, Mina Ahdi, said in the same statement: “At first we suspected that he might be a spy in the Islamic Movement. But now I believe he is mentally ill and adheres to far-right conspiracy ideologies.”
Police in Magdeburg, the capital of Saxony-Anhalt, said on Sunday that the dead were four women aged 45, 52, 67 and 75, in addition to a 9-year-old boy.
Authorities said 200 people were injured, including 41 in serious condition. They were being treated in multiple hospitals in Magdeburg, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) west of Berlin, and beyond.
The suspect appeared before a judge on Saturday evening, who behind closed doors ordered him to be kept in custody on charges of murder and attempted murder. He faces possible indictment.
The horror of another act of mass violence in Germany makes it likely that immigration will remain a major issue as the country heads toward an early crisis. Elections on February 23. A fatal knife attack in Solingen last August pushed the issue to the top of the 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 immigration in the past and for what they see as security failures now.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, known for his strong anti-immigration stance for years, took advantage of the attack in Germany to attack the European Union’s immigration policies. He described it as a “terrorist act.”
At an annual press conference in Budapest on Saturday, Orban insisted that “there is no doubt that there is a link between the changing world in Western Europe, and the migration that flows there, especially illegal migration and terrorist acts.”
Orban vowed to “fight back” on the EU’s migration policies, and claimed without evidence that “Brussels wants Magdeburg to happen to Hungary too.”
& Edition 2024 The Canadian Press
