Three days after the attack on a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, with more than 200 injured and five people dead, including a 9-year-old child, the Police of the port town of Bremerhaven, in the north of the country, in the State of Bremen, arrested this Sunday night a man who threatened to attack the city’s Christmas market through a video published on TikTok.
The authorities have provided more details about the arrested person or the seriousness of the threats, but they have indicated that they have been able to identify the suspect “very quickly” after the video was published, which is why they have detained him preventively.
This arrest takes place after the detainee for the attack committed this Friday in Magdeburg, and a few hours after the secret services of Saudi Arabia revealed that approximately a year ago they notified the German authorities of the danger of the arrested person. According to the president of the Federal Criminal Office, Holger Munch, the warning was forwarded to the Regional Criminal Office of the state of Saxony Anhalt, which saw no reason to act.
On the other hand, it has been known that already in 2013 Taleb A. had threatened with an attack, on that occasion against the College of Physicians of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (east of the country) which had not recognized part of his training. In a call he threatened action that would have international repercussions and mentioned the Islamist attack against the Boston Marathon, which had been committed two days earlier.
According to the Ministry of the Interior of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Taleb A.’s home was searched two days later but no evidence was found that he was actually planning an attack. In the end it all amounted to a fine for disturbing public order with threats to which a court in Rostock sentenced him.
Between 2011 and 2014 Taleb A. lived in Stralsund (northeast Germany) where he specialized in psychiatry and there, after asking for financial help, he threatened to commit an act that would have “international” repercussions. On another occasion he threatened to commit suicide.
In 2015 he complained to the Ministry of the Interior about the fine he had been sentenced to in Rostock, calling the judge a racist and threatening to get a gun. Despite all this and the threats made on social networks for taking revenge against alleged German plans to Islamize Europe, Taleb was not in the sights of security agencies.
