Who is Magdeburg suspect Taleb al-Abdulmohsen? The dark history behind the Saudi doctor at the centre of the German Christmas attack
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The softly spoken psychiatrist was unfailingly polite in his brief exchanges with his neighbours. One called him 'reserved but upright'. Others assumed he was a decent sort too. Why else was he quoted in the liberal media as a humanitarian 'activist' who spoke out in support of female Saudi refugees fleeing oppression? But little about Dr Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen, 50, was quite as it seemed.
![[Pictured: Taleb A the alleged car-ramming perpetrator that killed 5 and injured more than 200 in an attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg, eastern Germany]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/21/23/93383963-14217709-Pictured_Taleb_A_the_alleged_car_ramming_perpetrator_that_killed-a-33_1734822635971.jpg)
Alone in his ground-floor flat in the medieval German town of Bernburg, his patina of respectability soon faded along with his ready smile. There, behind tightly drawn blinds, he worked long into the night on his computer, his 'kaleidoscope of paranoiac views' finding disturbing expression online.
![[Police officers secure the area during the German Chancellor's visit to the scene of a vehicle-ramming attack on the Christmas market in Magdeburg]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/21/23/93383265-14217709-Police_officers_secure_the_area_during_the_German_Chancellor_s_v-a-34_1734822640216.jpg)
Some of his tweets were incendiary and, with Germany struggling to make sense of Friday's slaughter in Magdeburg, terrifyingly prophetic. 'If Germany wants war, we will have it,' he posted in August. 'If Germany wants to kill us, we will slaughter them, die or proudly go to prison… Germany will pay the price.'.
![[Plush toys, candles and floral tributes lie near the site where a car drove into a crowd at a Magdeburg Christmas market]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/21/23/93383081-14217709-Plush_toys_candles_and_floral_tributes_lie_near_the_site_where_a-a-35_1734822647033.jpg)
Dr Al-Abdulmohsen seemed to uncover conspiracy at every turn. The police were out to get him, he raged. Kill him, even. Though quite why was never exactly clear. Elsewhere he expressed support for political groups such as Alternative for Germany (AfD) which has been accused of flirting with Nazi rhetoric. He also endorsed our own far-Right rabble-rouser, Tommy Robinson.
![[Mourners lit candles and placed flowers outside a church near the market on the cold and gloomy day]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/21/23/93383209-14217709-Mourners_lit_candles_and_placed_flowers_outside_a_church_near_th-a-36_1734822648788.jpg)
