A German official says the suspect in the Christmas market attack has signs of mental illness

The German government is under fire for failing to prevent it fatal car crash attack A Christmas market tragedy on Monday would have been difficult to prevent, he said suspicious appeared to be mentally disturbed.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, along with security and intelligence chiefs, were questioned by a parliamentary committee about the attack, which killed five people and injured more than 200, and whether there were missed clues and security lapses.

Faeser said the motive for the Dec. 20 attack in the eastern city of Magdeburg, where a Saudi-born doctor who had lived in Germany for years was arrested, had not yet been determined, but he said there were “striking signs of a pathological psyche. “

He added that lessons should be learned on how to monitor potential attackers who do not fit the usual categories of danger and are “psychologically disturbed and … driven by convoluted conspiracy theories.”

The minister claimed that “such attackers do not fit any threat profile” – such as far-right extremists or Islamists – and warned that German security services would need “other indicators and action plans” to deal with them in the future.

It was identified by the suspect named Taleb A. by the German authorities BBC News and as Taleb al-Abdulmohsen of the AFP news agency. He came to Germany in 2006 and received refugee status 10 years later.

Police arrested him at the scene of the attack, where a car was used as a weapon, a technique previously used in jihadist attacks.

Islamist extremist in 2016 Plowed through a crowded Christmas market in Berlin killed 13 people and injured dozens of people with a truck. The attacker was killed in a shootout a few days later. that year, ISIS claimed It claimed responsibility after another attacker killed 86 people in a truck attack Nice, France.

Abdulmohsen, by contrast, has been strongly anti-Islamic and sympathetic to the far-right in his social media posts in the past, as well as angry that Germany has allowed too many Muslim war refugees and other asylum seekers into the country.

Faeser said there are “tens of thousands of tweets” the suspect has sent over the years that have yet to be fully investigated.

“It explains that not everything is on the table yet,” he said. “Who knew what clues and what was passed on when should be carefully clarified.”

Reuters reports that he posted snarky comments to X, among other things, blaming Germany’s supposed liberalism for the death of the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates and accusing the police of stealing a USB stick from him and destroying his criminal complaint.

Abdulmohsen, 50, is the only suspect in the attack, in which a rented BMW sports car drove through a crowd of revelers at high speed, leaving a trail of bloody carnage.

Prosecutors said he was arrested on five counts of murder and 205 counts of attempted murder, but not yet on terrorism-related charges.

Reiner Haseloff, the state premier of Saxony-Anhalt, described it as a “single attack” at the time.

According to media reports citing unnamed German security sources, the suspect had previously been treated for mental illness and tested positive for drug use on the night of his arrest. German media investigations into Abdulmohsen’s past and posts on social networks revealed expressions of anger and frustration, threats of violence against German citizens and politicians.

German police said they contacted Abdulmohsen in September 2023 and October 2024, but failed to meet again in December despite repeated attempts.

According to Reuters, Holger Muench, president of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), said that Abdulmohsen “made insults and even threats. However, he was not known for acts of violence.”

Chancellor Olaf Scholz told the news website that general elections are expected in February T-online officials said they would be looking closely at “whether there was any failure of authority” and whether any leads were missed in the run-up to the attack.

Saudi Arabia said it had repeatedly warned Germany about Abdulmohsen, but police said they considered the charges too vague, according to Reuters.

In the future February electionsThe bloodshed at the Christmas market has reignited a heated debate over immigration and security after deadly knife attacks this year blamed on Islamist extremists.

After Monday’s hearing, liberal Free Democrats lawmaker Konstantin Kuhle said “federal and state authorities know this criminal.” But Kuhle said no authority has connected all the dots and “to date we don’t have a complete list of all the contacts with the authorities”.

Faeser said having a fuller picture of all the data would have been nice, but likely wouldn’t have prevented the attack.

Gottfried Curio, an MP from the far-right and anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party, was the harshest in his criticism.

“Everything was predictable for everyone,” he said. “We have hundreds of dangerous people in this country, we let them escape.

“What we need is deportation, instead we get naturalization. Now we need a change in security policy in this country.”