Saudi Arabia ‘had asked for extradition’ of suspect in Magdeburg attack
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Riyadh warned Germany many times about danger posed by Taleb Jawad al-Abdulmohsen, source says. A source close to the Saudi government has told Agence France-Presse that Saudi authorities previously requested the extradition of the main suspect in Friday’s Christmas market attack in Germany, as multiple agencies admitted they had received warnings about him.
![[Magdeburg mourns victims of Christmas market attack – video]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/191880c8ca7460f2a04fb68bfa62e82a154cc5ab/0_574_7000_3938/7000.jpg?width=465&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Echoing reporting from over the weekend, the source said Saudi Arabia warned Germany “many times” about Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a Saudi citizen with a history of spreading anti-Islamic propaganda on social media. The source did not explain in what way he was considered potentially dangerous.
“There was [an extradition] request,” the source told AFP, without giving the reason for the request, adding that Riyadh had warned he “could be dangerous”. Questions are mounting in Germany about whether Friday’s attack in Magdeburg, which killed five people, might have been preventable. Reports have emerged about lapses in security, questionable immigration decisions and attempts by police to confront Abdulmohsen over threatening behaviour that were allegedly not followed through.
Abdulmohsen, 50, a consultant psychiatrist, is being held in police custody on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and grievous bodily harm. Four women and a nine-year-old boy were killed in the attack, when a black Mercedes SUV ploughed for 400 metres into crowds of people at the Christmas market in the centre of Magdeburg, in eastern Germany. More than 230 people are now known to have been injured in the three-minute attack, 41 of whom remain in a critical condition. The number of injured was revised upwards on Monday from a previous count of about 200.
