On Saturday, Germany was still in shock and struggling to understand the suspect behind the attack in the city of Magdeburg.
The authorities said that Talib A., who local media identified as 50 years old and a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy, has lived in Germany for two decades. He was arrested at the site after he rammed a black BMW into a Christmas market crowded with shoppers on Friday evening, killing at least five people and injuring about 200 others.
Leading German terrorism expert Peter Neumann posted on X that he had not yet encountered a suspect in an act of mass violence with this profile.
Talib He also described himself as a former Muslim.
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He criticized the German authorities, saying they had failed to do enough to combat “Islamism in Europe.”
He also expressed his support for the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party.
Some described Talib as an activist who helped Saudi women flee their homeland. More recently, he appeared to be focusing on his theory that German authorities were targeting Saudi asylum seekers.
“After 25 years in this ‘business’ you think nothing can surprise you anymore,” Newman, the terrorism expert, wrote. But a 50-year-old former Saudi Muslim living in East Germany, who loves the AfD and wants to punish Germany for its tolerance toward Islamists — that wasn’t really on my radar.
On Saturday, German Interior Minister Nancy Weisser told reporters: “At this stage, we can only say with certainty that the perpetrator was clearly Islamophobic – we can confirm that.” Everything else is subject to further investigation and we will have to wait.”
A Germany-based organization called Athiest Refugee Relief said the alleged attacker was not part of the group, and claimed he had made “numerous accusations and allegations” against it and former board members, which it said were false.
“We distance ourselves from him in the strongest terms,” the group said in a statement on its website, adding that members of the atheist refugee relief organization filed a criminal complaint against him in 2019 after “the most severe defamation and verbal attacks.”
& Edition 2024 The Canadian Press
