German authorities said they received tips last year about the suspect in a car attack at Christmas market in Magdeburg as more information emerged on Sunday about the five people killed.
Authorities have he identified the suspect as a Saudi doctor who arrived in Germany in 2006 and had obtained permanent residency. The police have not named the suspect publicly, in line with privacy rules, but some German news outlets have named him as Taleb A. and reported that he was an expert in psychiatry and psychotherapy .
Authorities say he does not fit the usual profile of perpetrators of terrorist attacks. He described himself as a former Muslim who strongly criticized Islam and in numerous social media posts expressed support for the far-right anti-immigrant party for Germany (AfD). .
He is being held in custody while authorities investigate him.
The head of the Federal Criminal Police Office, Holger Münch, said in an interview with German broadcaster ZDF on Saturday that his office received a tipoff from Saudi Arabia in November 2023, which prompted authorities to launch “appropriate investigative measures”. .
FAZ newspaper in Germany he said he interviewed the suspect in 2019 and described him as an anti-Islam activist.
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“The man also published a large number of posts on the Internet. He also communicated with various authorities, made insults and even threats. However, he was not known to have committed acts of violence,” said Münch, at is the german office the same as the fbi.
He said the warnings, however, were very unspecific.
The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees also said on Saturday on X that they received a tipoff about the suspect at the end of last summer.
“This was taken seriously, like all of the numerous recommendations,” the office said. But he also noted that it is not an investigating authority and that he sent the information to the responsible authorities. He did not provide any other details.
The Central Council of Elderly Muslims said in a statement that the suspect had “terrorised” them for years and expressed shock at the attack.
“He seemed to share the beliefs of the far right of the AfD and believed in a massive conspiracy aimed at making Germany Islamic. His delusions went so far that he assumed that even groups that criticized Islamism were part of the Islamist conspiracy.” the statement said.
The group's chairman, Mina Ahadi, said in the same statement: “At first we suspected that he might be a mole in the Islamist movement. But now I think he is a psychopath ' there that adheres to ultra-right conspiracy ideologies.”
Police in Magdeburg, the capital of the state of Saxony-Anhalt, said on Sunday that those who died were four women aged 45, 52, 67 and 75, as well as a 9-year-old boy.
Authorities said 200 people were injured, including 41 in serious condition. They were being treated in several hospitals in Magdeburg, which is about 130 kilometers (80 miles) west of Berlin, and further afield.
The suspect was brought before a judge on Saturday night, who ordered him to be held behind closed doors on charges of murder and attempted murder. He faces a possible conviction.
The horror caused by another major act of violence in Germany makes it likely that migration will remain a key issue as the country moves to an early election on February 23. A fatal knife attack in Solingen in August pushed the issue to the top of the agenda, and led Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government to tighten border security measures.
Right-wing figures from across Europe have criticized the German authorities for allowing high levels of migration in the past and for what they see as security failures now.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbánwho is known for a strong anti-immigration stance going back years, used the attack in Germany to stop the migration policies of the European Union and described it as a “terrorist act”.
At an annual press conference in Budapest on Saturday, Orbán said that “there is no doubt that there is a connection between the changed world in Western Europe, the migration that flows there, especially illegal migration and acts of terrorism. “
Orbán vowed to “fight back” against the EU's migration policies and claimed without evidence that “Brussels wants Magdeburg to happen to Hungary as well.” “
