Filip Singer / EPA
The actions of the police, who received warnings about the suspect’s danger, are being investigated. The suspect has already been charged with murder and attempted murder and is in pre-trial detention.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said investigators probing the car attack at the Magdeburg Christmas market will also look at how authorities responded to previous warnings about the suspected attacker.
Five people, including a 9-year-old boy, were killed and around 200 injured on Friday night when a car crashed into a crowd at the east German city’s Christmas market.
“The German Federal Criminal Police (BKA) is supporting the investigations of the authorities in Saxony-Anhalt,” Faeser told Bild am Sonntag.
“The authorities responsible for the investigation will clarify all the background. They are also investigating exactly what information has been provided in the past and how they were followed“, disse Faeser ao Bild am Sonntag.
Warnings of a potential threat
On Saturday, Germany’s Migration and Refugee Service said it had received a information last year about the man accused of attacking the Christmas market.
The warning was received through social media in 2023 and transmitted to the competent investigative authorities at that time.
“This, like any other indication, was taken seriously”, stated the migration service.
According to Der Spiegel magazine, the Saudi secret services they had already warned their German counterparts about the suspected attacker on several occasions.
Despite this, the newspaper Die Welt reported that a risk assessment carried out by the German federal and state police last year concluded that the suspect did not represent “no specific danger”.
BKA president Holger Münch told German public broadcaster ZDF that the man had several contacts with authorities, during which he hurled insults and, at times, threats, “but was not known for acts of violence.”
Münch described him as a “atypical perpetrator”.
In trouble with the authorities
Describing himself as a former Muslim and a Saudi dissident, the suspect was an enthusiastic user of the X media platform, formerly Twitter.
On this platform, he published anti-Islamic opinionscriticized the German authorities and expressed his support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
In one case, he wrote on social media: “There is a path to justice in Germany without blowing up a German embassy or randomly slaughter German citizens?… If anyone knows, please tell me.”
In the past, he had legal problems. In 2013, he was fined by a Rostock court for “disturbing the public peace by threaten to commit crimes”, according to Der Spiegel.
This year he was investigated in Berlin for “improper use of emergency calls” after arguing with police at a station.
The suspect was arrested shortly after Friday’s attack and faces charges of homicide and attempted homicidepolice said on Sunday, and will be remanded in pre-trial detention.
It is still too early to determine a definitive motive for the crime, authorities added.
