German police monitored Christmas market attack suspect for years – officials

Saudi national Taleb al Abdulmohsen, known to the authorities since 2015, was interviewed weeks before the incident

A man who was allegedly behind the deadly attack at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg was known to law enforcement and the counterterrorism authorities for years, German media outlets reported on Monday. The suspect identified as Saudi national Taleb al Abdulmohsen also underwent several threat assessments by the police, including just weeks before the attack, a regional interior minister has revealed.

Abdulmohsen first entered the security services’ crosshairs as early as in 2015, ZDF TV reported, citing a statement by Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Interior Ministry. At the time, local security officials reported him to the Joint Counter-Terrorism Center as a person who could potentially carry out a violent attack over threats to a regional medical association and a local welfare office.

In September 2023, a female informant also warned the police in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt about Abdulmohsen’s potentially violent intentions, calling the situation “very urgent,” according to broadcaster MDR. The police reportedly did not take any action at the time.

Saxony-Anhalt Interior Minister Tamara Zieschang told regional lawmakers on Monday that the police conducted a threat assessment of Abdulmohsen on two occasions, in 2023 and 2024. They also conducted two “potential security threat interviews” with the man in September 2023 and October 2024 – just weeks before the Christmas market attack.

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The measure is used by the German authorities to inform potential perpetrators that the police are monitoring them, to deter them from committing criminal acts. According to Zieschang, the investigation into Abdulmohsen was opened over a post he made on X in December 2023. The proceedings were discontinued after the police failed to find him on several occasions.

The minister refused to make the content of his messages public. Magdeburg Police Chief Tom-Oliver Langhans confirmed that there was a criminal complaint against the suspect in the past, as well as an attempt by the police to assess the threat he posed, but did not provide further details.

Last Friday, Abdulmohsen allegedly drove his car into a crowd at the Magdeburg Christmas market, killing at least five people, including a nine-year-old boy, and injuring 200 others. He was arrested at the scene and identified as the primary suspect in the attack.

According to dpa news agency, Saudi Arabia warned the German authorities about the man around a year ago, but the nature of the warning was not immediately known.