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.
Echoing reporting from over the weekend, the source said Saudi Arabia had warned Germany “many times” about Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a Saudi citizen with a history of spreading anti-Islamic propaganda on social media. He 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 the 50-year-old over threatening behaviour that were allegedly not followed through.
Abdulmohsen, 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 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 injured figure was revised upwards on Monday, from a previous number of about 200.
Holger Münch, the head of Germany’s federal criminal police office, BKA, told German television Germany had received a warning from Saudi Arabia last year, but on investigation had found it too vague to act upon.
Police had attempted to approach Abdulmohsen for a so-called “threat analysis” discussion, but had apparently let the opportunity go after failing to find him at home.
His reputation for posting threatening messages online and in person is at the centre of the murder investigation. On Sunday, Christian Pegel, a state interior minister, said the suspect had referred to the 2013 Islamist terror attack on the Boston Marathon during a professional dispute at around that time.
In Magdeburg, where a sea of flowers and candles have been left at the site of the attack, the city’s 240,000 residents are trying to come to terms with what happened. City authorities criticised as “deeply disrespectful” the numerous attempts to politicise the attack.
The far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland, which is polling in second place in the run-up to a snap election in February, has invited its supporters to join a rally on the nearby cathedral square on Monday evening, despite the fact that Abdulmohsen had repeatedly expressed his support for the party and its affiliates on social media.
The AfD leader Alice Weidel is due to address attendees. The main focus will be on criticising the government’s immigration policies.
A counter-demonstration entitled ‘Don’t give hate a chance’ is due to take place at the same time, with participants being urged to form a human chain around the city.
On Saturday, far-right protesters from across Germany, dressed in black and disguising their faces, gathered in Magdeburg, shouting – in reference to immigrants – “throw them out”.
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Germany’s interior minister, Nancy Faeser, has urged parties across the political divide to pull together and quickly pass laws on police reform and biometric surveillance that are at risk of being sidelined, delayed or scrapped altogether, following the collapse of the government last month.
In an interview with Spiegel, Faeser said: “It’s clear we must do everything in order to protect the people of Germany from such horrific acts of violence. To do this, our security authorities need all the necessary powers as well as more personnel.”
The opposition conservatives said Germany urgently needed a review of domestic security forces’ ability to access intelligence, in particular digital data, and were scathing about the fact that too often authorities are dependent on information from abroad to foil attacks on German soil.
“It cannot be the case any longer that we are satisfied with the fact that information about violent criminals and terrorists often only comes from foreign services,” Günter Krings, the CDU’s justice spokesperson, told German media.
He said it must be made easier for security services to apprehend dangerous people who are brought to their attention before they have the chance to carry out attacks.
Security at many Christmas markets around the country has been heightened following Friday’s attack, in which the attacker used a corridor meant for emergency vehicles to penetrate the market.
Police in the north-western city of Bremerhaven said they had arrested a 67-year-old man who had posted a TikTok video in which he had threatened to carry out knife attacks on people with dark skin in his local market on Christmas Day.