Germany mourns as Magdeburg market attack claims five lives
New information is emerging about the attack on the Christmas market in Magdeburg, which claimed the lives of five people. It has been revealed that the German police had contacted the perpetrator a few weeks before the attack. Furthermore, the attacker's will was found in his car.
In the attack on the Friday (20th December) Christmas market in Magdeburg, five people lost their lives, including a 9-year-old boy. Yesterday, the German media reported that the number of injured had risen to 235. More injured individuals continue to report to hospitals.
An investigation into the attack is ongoing. The perpetrator is a doctor of psychology, Taleb Abdul Jawad - a 50-year-old born in Saudi Arabia who has lived in Germany since 2006. Magdeburg's chief prosecutor, Horst Walter Nopens, indicated that the man's actions might have been motivated by dissatisfaction with the treatment of Saudi Arabian refugees in Germany.
Jawad is currently in investigative custody - he was apprehended immediately after the attack. Now, new information about him is coming to light. It turns out that the doctor had been attracting the attention of authorities for some time.
The will in Taleb A.'s car
The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Saxony-Anhalt, Tamara Zieschang, was quoted by the dpa agency as saying that the German police had contacted Jawad as early as September 2023. He was interrogated at one of the stations in the Salzland district (Saxony-Anhalt). The second interrogation took place a few weeks before the attack, in October 2023, this time at the perpetrator's workplace.
German weekly "Spiegel," reports that investigators found his will in the perpetrator's car (he rented a BMW over a week before the attack). In it, he wrote that after his death, his entire estate should go to the German Red Cross. According to the newspaper, the text contained no political messages.
The tragedy in Magdeburg shook Germany. Some politicians are calling for increased security powers to better protect citizens. Magdeburg police chief Tom-Oliver Langhans reported that the perpetrator drove for about three minutes before being stopped.
