German market attack suspect involved in 7 cases prior to attack

BERLIN

Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen, the suspect in an attack on the Magdeburg Christmas market in Germany, was already known to German authorities through various investigations, according to a media report on Saturday.

Al-Abdulmohsen appeared in seven investigations between April 2023 and October 2024, where he was the complainant in five and the accused in two, the DPA media reported.

The report added that police started an investigation against him Dec. 1, 2023, after he criticized Germany on X for the treatment of asylum seekers from Saudi Arabia and issued threats.

Abdulmohsen was accused of threatening a lawyer who had previously represented him, as well as the lawyer's family and office staff in another investigation. Police met with Abdulmohsen as part of a risk assessment.

It was noted that the assessment interview was conducted to inform him that he was being monitored and to ask him to refrain from certain behaviors.

It also said Abdulmohsen, who had been working in the department for addictive criminals at a hospital in Bernburg since 2020, was responsible for the psychiatric care of patients, and that although the risk assessment took place at the hospital where he was employed, there was no exchange of information between police and his employer.

Abdolmohsen, meanwhile, filed criminal complaints for slander, theft of an external hard drive from a mailbox and sexual harassment against refugee association employees, according to the report.

Five people were killed and more than 200 injured Dec. 20 in a vehicle attack on a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg.

The 50-year-old Saudi-born psychiatrist from Saudi Arabia, who has lived in Germany since 2006, was identified as the attacker.

Abdulmohsen, who was detained after the attack, was arrested Dec. 22.

*Writing by Serdar Dincel