CNN
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A German judge was sentenced after a late Saturday court appearance in connection with the Christmas market ramming attack, as authorities face mounting criticism that they could have done more to stop the incident. The suspect was ordered to be held in pre-trial detention.
Taleb al-Abdelmohsen is accused of crashing his car into a crowded market in the city of Magdeburg, killing five people and injuring more than 200 others.
The motive for the attack is unknown, but the suspect is a 50-year-old Saudi national who has lived in Germany for more than 10 years and was working to help Saudis flee their homeland. He has been a vocal critic of Islam on social media, and prosecutors have suggested he may have been angered by Germany’s treatment of Saudi refugees.
These days messages are becoming more and more threatening. Some say, “If Germany wanted to kill us, we would slaughter them with pride, or die or go to prison.”
“The magistrate ordered pre-trial detention on five counts of murder, several counts of attempted murder and several counts of dangerous bodily harm,” a police statement early Sunday morning said.
“Accordingly, the defendant was taken to a correctional facility.”
Police also released additional details about the victims of Friday’s attack. According to the statement, the dead include a 9-year-old boy and four women aged 45, 52, 67 and 75.
The attack has been met with confusion and anger from the public and politicians, raising questions about possible security lapses just two months before a federal election in which immigration is likely to be a flashpoint. There is.
In response to a fatal car accident in Berlin in 2016, Germany tightened security at Christmas markets, an annual event during the holiday season.
But Magdeburg police chief Tom Oliver Langhans said Saturday that the attackers were able to access the market using an emergency exit usually reserved for ambulances and other emergency vehicles.
At the same meeting, city official Roni Klug insisted that the safety concept for Magdeburg’s Christmas markets is “constantly being reviewed and revised.”
Mr Krug continued: “The police first need to investigate how this incident happened. I do not intend to indulge in speculation. But once we have reached an assessment with our colleagues in the police force, we will look into the concept of security. Please rest assured that we will continue to update.”
Saudi authorities had previously warned Germany several times about the suspect, two sources familiar with the communications told CNN.
CNN contacted Germany’s Foreign Ministry for comment on the warning, which referred it to the Interior Ministry, which referred CNN to the public prosecutor’s office in Magdeburg. CNN has not received a response from prosecutors.
However, in an interview with German public broadcaster ZDF, Holger Münsch, head of Germany’s Federal Criminal Service, admitted that “we ourselves had previously received a tip-off from Saudi Arabia in November 2023.”
He said legal proceedings had been started and Saxony-Anhalt state police had taken “appropriate investigative measures”, but the information police had obtained about Taleb al-Abdelmohsen was too “unspecified” and he “He wasn’t known for his violent behavior,” he continued.
German politicians at the other end of the political spectrum seized on Friday’s deadly attack to attack the coalition government.
Sarah Wagenknecht, leader of the far-left party Sala Wagenknecht Alliance, called on Interior Minister Nancy Feiser to explain “why so many hints and warnings were ignored in advance.”
In a post about X, Bernd Baumann, a member of parliament from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, called for a special session of parliament to discuss security issues.
