Alarm about the Magdeburg Arab was ignored

Published December 24, 2024 at 07.13

Foreign. The Saudi Arabian who carried out the terrorist attack at the Christmas market in Magdeburg was already known to German authorities – but despite several warnings, no action was taken, reports RBB 24. Now criticism of the German security agencies and the country's immigration policy is growing.

Share the article

TwittraShare

The terrorist attack in Magdeburg

• Here is the German Christmas Arab asylum hero in the BBC
• "Model immigrant" mowed down Christmas market – several dead in Germany

Taleb A, a 50-year-old Saudi citizen who was granted asylum in Germany in 2016, drove into a crowd at a Christmas market on Friday evening. The attack claimed five lives and injured over 200 people.

Saudi Arabia had already warned Germany about the man last year and requested his extradition. However, German authorities ignored the warnings, according to information from Saudi security circles.

According to German media, Taleb A. had threatened violence on social media and criticized the German authorities for their handling of Saudi asylum seekers. Despite this, he was classified neither as extremist nor as a threat by the authorities.

Just the day before the attack, Taleb A. was supposed to appear in a court in Berlin to appeal an earlier decision on punishment for misusing the emergency number. However, he failed to appear at the hearing, and no action was taken to locate him.

The police in Magdeburg have confirmed that there were plans to carry out a “risk prevention dialogue” with the perpetrator, but this never happened. An investigation is now underway into why these measures were not implemented.

After the attack, Germany's far-left Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) has faced harsh criticism for the government's immigration policy. Faeser, who has long advocated open borders, admitted on Saturday that possible government failures are being investigated.