We hear that Saudi authorities are currently working hard to collate all information about Magdeburg market suspect Taleb al-Abdelmohsen and share it with Germany’s ongoing investigation “in every possible way.” There is.
Inside the imposing, sand-colored fortress-like walls of the Saudi Foreign Ministry in Riyadh, there is a sense of perhaps justified anger.
The ministry had previously warned the German government about al-Abdelmohsen’s extremist views.
The company sent four so-called “verbal memos,” three to German intelligence services and one to the Foreign Ministry in Berlin. According to Saudi Arabia, there was no response.
Part of the explanation for this is that Taleb al-Abdelmohsen was granted asylum from Germany in 2016, a year after former Chancellor Angela Merkel opened the border to admit more than 1 million migrants from the Middle East. It may be due to the fact that it was done. Ten years have passed since Al Abdulmohsen settled in Germany.
Coming from a country where Islam is the only religion allowed to be practiced in public, Al Abdulmohsen was a very unusual citizen.
He turned his back on Islam and was considered a heretic in the eyes of many.
Born in the Saudi date palm oasis town of Hofuf in 1974, little is known about his early life before deciding to leave Saudi Arabia and move to Europe at the age of 32.
Active on social media, his Twitter (later X) account labels himself as a psychiatrist and founder of the Saudi rights movement, with the tag @SaudiExMuslims.
He founded a website aimed at helping Saudi women flee the country to Europe.
The Saudis claim he was a human trafficker, and Interior Ministry investigator Mabaates is said to maintain an extensive file on him.
In recent years, there have been reports that dissident Saudis have been subjected to hostile surveillance by Saudi government agents in Canada, the United States, and Germany.
There is no question that the federal and state German authorities committed a grave error of omission in the case of Al-Abd al-Mohsen.
Whatever the reason for not responding to repeated warnings about his extremism, as the Saudis claim, he was apparently a danger to his host country.
Separately, he is also accused of blocking or at least not guarding the emergency access to the Magdeburg Alter Markt, allowing him to drive his BMW into the crowd.
German authorities defended the placement of the market and said an investigation into the suspect’s past was ongoing.
However, a complicating factor here is that Saudi Arabia has a poor record on human rights, even though it is considered a friend and ally of the West.
Women in Saudi Arabia were banned from driving until June 2018, and even those who publicly called for the ban to be lifted before then have been persecuted and imprisoned.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is only in his 30s, but he is extremely popular in his country.
Western leaders have largely distanced themselves from him after he was implicated in the gruesome murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, which the crown prince denies. However, his star remains dominant domestically.
Under his de facto rule, Saudi national life changed for the better, with men and women allowed to mingle freely, movie theaters reopened, large-scale and spectacular sporting and entertainment events, Live performances by Western artists such as David Guetta and The David Guetta have also resumed. Black Eyed Peas.
But there is a contradiction here.
As Saudi Arabia’s national life flourishes, so too does a crackdown on anything that suggests greater political or religious freedom.
In some cases, people have been sentenced to harsh prison sentences of more than 10 years for simple tweets.
No one is allowed to even question the way the country is run.
Against this backdrop, Germany appears to have dropped the ball on Taleb Al-Abdelmohsen.
