Christmas market attacker jailed for life in Germany
A Saudi doctor in Germany was sentenced to life in prison for killing six people and injuring hundreds after crashing a rented BMW into a crowd at a historic market in the eastern city of Magdeburg days before Christmas 2024.
The defendant, Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, was a psychiatrist originally from Saudi Arabia and was described by authorities as having a history of anti-Islamic rhetoric and far-right sympathies.
The attack shocked the country and increased tensions over immigration months before a general election in early 2025.
Prosecutors accused the man of killing six people and attempting to kill hundreds more in an attack they said was planned over several weeks.
Five women, aged between 45 and 75, and a nine-year-old boy were killed.
Prosecutors said the defendant acted out of dissatisfaction and frustration with the outcome of the civil dispute and his failure to pursue various criminal charges.
On Friday, the court sentenced him to life imprisonment, finding “exceptional severity”; This means the person will generally not be eligible for parole after the usual 15 years and will face a significantly longer prison term.
Al-Abdulmohsen was working as a psychiatrist at a prisoner rehabilitation clinic in Bernburg, about 40 km from Magdeburg, but had been absent since the end of October 2024 due to vacation and illness.
Initially, the attack sparked comparisons on social media to a deadly attack by an Islamist-influenced immigrant on a Berlin Christmas market in 2016, but the focus quickly shifted to the defendant’s insult of Islam.
Al-Abdulmohsen appeared in a series of media interviews in 2019, reporting on his activist work helping Saudis who had turned their backs on Islam escape to Europe; but a group of Saudi exiles reported conflict with him, saying he was isolated and had problems working with others.
Local media reported that the defendant expressed little remorse, babbled, and was asked by the judge to make a short speech during the hearing.
The defendant also left video messages on social media account X on the day of the attack.
In rambling comments, he variously blamed Germany’s so-called liberalism for the death of the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates and accused the police of stealing a USB stick from him and destroying his criminal complaint.
The federal police said that Germany received a warning about the defendant from Saudi Arabia in 2023, and that authorities were investigating, but it was unclear.
A large number of affected individuals participated in the litigation as co-plaintiffs, represented by approximately 40 lawyers.
