Doctor who perpetrated Christmas Market car attack is 'ex-Muslim'
21 December 2024
The perpetrator of the deadly Christmas market massacre that has left at least two dead and nearly 70 injured is an anti-Islam doctor who arrived in Germany in 2006 as a refugee from Saudi Arabia, MailOnline can reveal.
The attack, carried out by 50-year-old psychologist Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, saw him ram into a massive crowd at a Christmas market in Magdeburg on December 20 with a dark BMW.
Footage taken in the minutes after the crash, which happened at around 7pm, showed al-Abdulmohsen being arrested at gunpoint by German police.
MailOnline can reveal that al-Abdulmohsen, a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy from the Saudi Arabian city of Hofuf, moved to Germany in 2006 and lives in Bernburg. He has been recognised as a refugee since 2016.
Previous media reports suggest he had worked to help ex-Muslims, particularly women, to flee Saudi Arabia after turning their backs on the religion.
Analysis of his social media reveals tweets in support of Germany's anti-immigration party AfD, while he has also made comments supporting Elon Musk, far-right thug Tommy Robinson and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
No official motive for the attack has been identified by police.
Authorities in Magdeburg say two people are dead, including a toddler, while 68 people were injured in the rampage, 15 of them seriously.
The account's bio reads: 'Saudi Military Opposition. Germany chases female Saudi asylum seekers, inside and outside Germany, to destroy their lives. Germany wants to islamize Europe.'
Posts include retweets of graphic videos, including one of a young Muslim woman purportedly being stoned to death 'because she had an affair with a young man outside of marriage.'
Another was a retweet of a post that simply read: 'Can you find one positive thing about Islam?'
In videos posted hours before the attack, he claimed that German authorities were opening his mail and stealing items including a USB stick.
'I consider the Germans, as citizens, responsible for the persecution I am facing' he said in one video.
'Currently in this country, the nation that is actively criminally chasing Islam critics is the German nation', he said in another.
He also appears to be a fan of AfD. In June, he retweeted party leader Alice Weidel, writing with typos: 'The left are crazy. We need the AfD to protect the police from them.'
He also retweeted the right-wing extremist AfD activist Naomi Seibt with the following quote: 'Tyranny is based on the docility of cowards. I choose to be brave.'
He was arrested following the crash which took place at 7:04pm in the city of Magdeburg, according to unidentified government officials in the state of Saxony-Anhalt who spoke to the dpa news agency.
A search of his name and details of his work revealed he was interviewed by the Frankfurter Rundschau, a regional newspaper, in 2019