Police in Germany have admitted that they were warned from Saudi Arabia about the potential dangers of the suspected perpetrator of the Magdeburg Christmas market attack, yet failed to act on the warnings.
The head of Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), Holger Münch, has acknowledged that his agency was tipped off by Riyadh in November of last year about Taleb A., a Saudi Arabian refugee accused of plowing a car into a crowded Christmas market on Friday evening, killing at least five people and injuring hundreds more.
According to Welt, Münch said: “Proceedings have also been initiated here. The police in Saxony-Anhalt then carried out appropriate investigative measures.”
However, no further actions were taken. The BKA chief also said that the suspect had “various contacts with the authorities, made insults and even made threats,” but Münch claimed that “he was not known for acts of violence.”
According to Welt, the Saudi embassy in Berlin had attempted to warn German authorities on several occasions about Taleb, pointing to posts he made on social media.
The suspected attacker is reported to have made several threats against Germany on social media, including: “I assure you: If Germany wants war, we will have it. If Germany wants to kill us, we will slaughter them, die or proudly go to prison.”
In another post, his is said to have vowed: “Germany will pay the price. A huge price… I assure you that 100 percent revenge will come soon. Even if it costs me my life.”
Additionally, the Saudis had also requested that Interpol arrest Taleb in 2023 for alleged terror activities. However, Germany rejected the request as they supposedly believed that it could have been politically motivated on the part of the Saudis, Der Spiegel reports.
A fellow Saudi Arabian woman had also reportedly attempted to warn authorities about Taleb, however, her email was not sent to Berlin police, but rather a German outpost in New Jersey in the United States. However, the warnings from the woman were also reportedly ignored by Berlin’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), broadcaster NTV reports.
Meanwhile, it has also been revealed that the suspect had previous encounters with the law, including in 2013 when he was convicted and fined for having “disturbed public peace” and “threatened criminal offenses.” This was three years before Germany approved his asylum and granted him a residence permit and seven years after he first entered the country in 2006.
He was also due to appear in court the day prior to the attack in Magdeburg over having abused the emergency phone line system by calling in fake emergencies to the fire department in Berlin.
After being granted asylum, supposedly for fear of persecution in his native country for his alleged atheism, Taleb set up a website and service to assist other ex-Muslims seek asylum in Germany and was featured for doing so in legacy media outlets such as the BBC.
He had reportedly expressed anger at Germany for allowing in Islamists from countries like Syria, while allegedly persecuting ex-Muslims from Saudi Arabia. Taleb had also expressed anger towards Berlin for the Islamization of Europe in general and had expressed sympathies for the anti-mass migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
However, despite this, Der Spiegel reported that Taleb publicly rejected the notion that he was right-wing and openly declared that he considered himself to be a “leftist”.
The AfD has also claimed that Taleb was never a member of their party and had never even made an application to join their ranks.
According to initial findings, Senior public prosecutor Horst Walter Nopens said that the attack was likely motivated by “dissatisfaction with the treatment of Saudi Arabian refugees in Germany.”
Alice Weidel, the chancellor candidate for the populist party, said Sunday: “The failure of the authorities, which made the horror in Magdeburg possible, is shocking. While politicians are using the security apparatus to target the opposition and government critics, there is a lack of resources and judgment to ward off real threats.”
The government has also faced criticism from left-wing populist BSW leader Sahra Wagenknecht who has demanded that Interior Minister Nancy Faeser explain “why so many tips and warnings were ignored in advance” and why he still had a residence permit to remain in the country while making “threats against Germany and its citizens”.
