Blog

On December 20^th, 2024, at approximately 19:04 local time, a black BMW drove through a Magdeburg Christmas market, killing five and injuring over 200. This comes a day before the eight-year anniversary of a similar attack on a Berlin Christmas market claimed by the Islamic State. German and international news outlets have identified 50-year-old Saudi refugee Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen as a potential suspect for the terror attack, though German law enforcement has yet to name the suspect due to privacy laws. He is now in custody while authorities continue to collect evidence.  

Suspect Profile  

Figure 1: Photo of suspect Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen (HANDOUT/AFP) 

Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen is a 50-year-old man born in Saudi Arabia. He has lived in Germany since 2006 and worked as a psychiatrist in the town of Bernburg, situated roughly 30 miles south of Magdeburg. According to the facility at which he worked, he had been absent from work since the end of October 2024 “due to holidays and illness.” The German government granted him asylum and refugee status in July 2016 despite an extradition request from Saudi Arabia. Prior to his application for refugee status, he was fined 900 euros in 2013 by the Rostock District Court after having “disturbed the peace” and “threatened to commit crimes.”  

Al-Abdulmohsen’s family reportedly belongs to the Shi’a faith, a minority group within the Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia. However, he is a self-proclaimed atheist who runs a website to help other ex-Muslims leave the Gulf States. His website displays a message telling Saudi women to “not seek asylum in Germany.” He made posts sharing his atheist views on his X account and reposted other ex-Muslim content creators. Some of his posts and reposts show support for the German right-wing AfD party and concern over a “secret plot to Islamize Germany.” Following the attack, he was described by German authorities as “Islamophobic.”  

He has no known links to Jihadist groups as of the writing of this article nor have German authorities claimed that the attack was inspired by Islamist ideology. He is believed to have acted alone. No official motive has been determined by the German police, though local prosecutor Horst Nopens stated that “dissatisfaction with the treatment of Saudi refugees in Germany” may have been a factor in the attack.  

Figure 2: Taleb A. posted this image on his X account roughly two weeks before the attack. The cover from a 2007 Der Spiegel article reads “Mecca Germany: The Silent Islamization” (X) 

The Magdeburg police held a meeting roughly a year before the attack to determine if Al-Abdulmohsen constituted a threat to public safety. Investigations have thus uncovered a series of posts on X, including a publication created in May 2024 captioned “It is very likely that I will die this year to bring about justice.” He was known to various local authorities to whom he had previously made threats, according to BKA (the German equivalent to the FBI) President Holger Munch. In 2023, The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees received a warning about Al-Abdulmohsen. Saudi sources had also allegedly alerted German authorities to the suspect’s “very extreme views,” according to the BBC. The statements from their Saudi source were considered “too unspecific” for law enforcement to investigate the suspect. Magdeburg police chief Tom-Oliver Langhans stated that he had no knowledge of such Saudi warnings.  

Authorities Urge Caution  

German authorities have since urged the public to avoid speculation concerning the attack and the suspect. In time, more information surrounding Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen’s profile will be discovered and made public. For now, German law enforcement agencies continue their investigation into the suspect and his motives.