Camille Naredo

Two rescuers sit on the ground to rest after a car crashed into a crowd at a Christmas market injuring more than 60 people on December 20, 2024 in Magdeburg, eastern Germany. Ronny Hartmann, AFP

Two rescuers sit on the ground to rest after a car crashed into a crowd at a Christmas market injuring more than 60 people on December 20, 2024 in Magdeburg, eastern Germany

Article (news)

Germany

Agence France-Presse

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/17348601344681734739918461AFP__20241220__36R326B__v1__Preview__GermanyAttackChristmasMarket.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Two rescuers sit on the ground to rest after a car crashed into a crowd at a Christmas market injuring more than 60 people on December 20, 2024 in Magdeburg, eastern Germany. Ronny Hartmann, AFP"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Two rescuers sit on the ground to rest after a car crashed into a crowd at a Christmas market injuring more than 60 people on December 20, 2024 in Magdeburg, eastern Germany. <em>Ronny Hartmann, AFP</em></span></span></span></div><p>BERLIN, Germany -- The German government faced growing questions Sunday about whether more could have been done to prevent the Christmas market car-ramming attack that killed five people and injured over 200.</p><p>The Saudi suspect, 50-year-old psychiatrist and anti-Islam activist Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, had made online death threats against German citizens and had a history of quarrelling with state authorities.</p><p>News magazine Der Spiegel, citing security sources, said the Saudi secret service had warned Germany&#x27;s spy agency BND a year ago about a tweet in which Abdulmohsen threatened Germany would pay a &quot;price&quot; for its treatment of Saudi refugees.</p><p>And in August Abdulmohsen wrote on social media: &quot;Is there a path to justice in Germany without blowing up a German embassy or randomly slaughtering German citizens?... If anyone knows it, please let me know.&quot;</p><p>Die Welt daily reported, also citing security sources, that German state and federal police had carried out a &quot;risk assessment&quot; on Abdulmohsen last year but concluded that he posed &quot;no specific danger&quot;.</p><p>Chancellor Olaf Scholz has condemned the &quot;terrible, insane&quot; attack Friday in the city of Magdeburg and made a call for national unity amid high political tensions as Germany heads towards elections on February 23.</p><p>But as German media dug into Abdulmohsen&#x27;s past, and investigators gave away little, criticism rained down from the far-right and far-left parties already bitterly opposed to the Scholz government.</p><p>The far-right AfD&#x27;s parliamentary head Bernd Baumann demanded Scholz call a special session of the Bundestag on the &quot;desolate&quot; security situation, arguing that &quot;this is the least that we owe the victims&quot;.</p><p>And the head of the far-left BSW party, Sahra Wagenknecht, demanded that Interior Minister Nancy Faeser explain &quot;why so many tips and warnings were ignored beforehand&quot;.</p><p>Mass-circulation daily Bild asked: &quot;Why did our police and intelligence services do nothing, even though they had the Saudi on their radar?... And why were the tips from Saudi Arabia apparently ignored?&quot;</p><p>It charged that &quot;German authorities usually only find out about attack plans in time when foreign services warn them&quot; and called for sweeping reforms after the election for a complete &quot;turnaround in internal security&quot;.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2024/12/21/saudi-man-arrested-after-deadly-car-attack-on-german-christmas-market-0850">READ: Saudi man arrested after deadly car attack on German Christmas market</a></div><div><strong>- &#x27;Ultra-right conspiracy ideologies&#x27; -</strong></div><div><script data-wid="auto" type="text/javascript" src="https://content.viralize.tv/display/?zid=AAEyze-tm4MR6kEa&amp;cid=ABSIVG5fD7Oe1qwb&amp;activation=click&amp;vip_mode=playing&amp;vip_position=bottom-right"></script></div><p>Magdeburg has been in deep mourning over the mass carnage Friday evening that killed four women and a nine-year-old child.</p><p>Of the 205 injured, around 40 were in critical condition, with doctors fighting to save their lives.</p><p>Surgeons have worked around the clock, and one health worker told local media of &quot;blood on the floor everywhere, people screaming, lots of painkillers being administered&quot;.</p><p>Police and prosecutors cautioned they were at the beginning of their investigation into what motivated the attack.</p><p>Abdulmohsen, who was arrested at the scene next to the heavily damaged car, referred to himself as &quot;a Saudi atheist&quot; in an unpublished interview with AFP from 2022.</p><p>As an activist, he helped women flee Gulf countries, and has in the past complained that German authorities were not doing enough to help them.</p><p>At the same time, he has criticized the entry of other Muslim migrants and war refugees to Germany and backed conspiracy theories about the planned &quot;Islamisation&quot; of Europe.</p><p>A harsh critic of Germany&#x27;s past welcome to many Muslim migrants, he wrote on the platform X that he wished ex-chancellor Angela Merkel could be jailed for life or executed.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2024/12/21/germany-in-shock-after-new-deadly-christmas-market-attack-1936">READ: Germany in shock after new deadly Christmas market attack</a></div><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2024/12/21/germany-mourns-5-killed-hundreds-wounded-in-christmas-market-attack-2227">READ: Germany mourns 5 killed, hundreds wounded in Christmas market attack</a></div><p>In previous brushes with the law, he was first fined by a court in the city of Rostock in 2013 for &quot;disturbing the public peace by threatening to commit crimes&quot;, according to Der Spiegel.</p><p>This year he was investigated in Berlin for the &quot;misuse of emergency calls&quot; after arguing with police at a station in Berlin.</p><p>He had been on sick leave since late October from his workplace, a clinic near Magdeburg that treats offenders with substance addiction problems.</p><p>The chairwoman of the group Central Council of Ex-Muslims, Mina Ahadi, said that the Saudi suspect &quot;is no stranger to us, because he has been terrorizing us for years&quot;.</p><p>She labelled him &quot;a psychopath who adheres to ultra-right conspiracy ideologies&quot; and said he &quot;doesn&#x27;t just hate Muslims, but everyone who doesn&#x27;t share his hatred.&quot;</p><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div>

<p>The German government faced growing questions Sunday about whether more could have been done to prevent the Christmas market car-ramming attack that killed five people and injured over 200.</p>

The German government faced growing questions Sunday about whether more could have been done to prevent the Christmas market car-ramming attack that killed five people and injured over 200.

Angry questions in Germany after Christmas market attack

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Angry questions in Germany after Christmas market attack

Agence France-Presse

Published Dec 22, 2024 06:18 PM PHT

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Germany

Taleb al-Abdulmohsen

Christmas market

Magdeburg

Olaf Scholz

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