The suspect in the German Christmas market killings was quizzed in 2013 after suggesting he would commit an atrocity – one of many threats that were dismissed by police.
Dr Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, 50, had been investigated after he threatened to attack a medical association over a dispute about his qualifications.
The Saudi ex-Muslim made the threat in a phone call in April 2013, two days after the Islamist Boston Marathon bombings which killed three people. He apparently alluded to carrying out a similar mass-casualty attack.
His apartment was raided but he escaped with a fine after investigators found no evidence of ‘preparations’ for an assault.
It is the latest in a string of embarrassing revelations that authorities had had warnings about the suspect’s online threats and erratic behaviour.
The German government last night vowed to investigate whether the attack which left five dead and more than 200 injured could have been prevented.
The Saudi-born psychiatrist, who has a history of anti-Islamic rhetoric, made several online threats to kill Germans and had a well-documented history of disputes with state authorities.
In 2014 he came to their attention again over his demands for financial support in Stralsund, where he lived and trained from 2011 to 2016.
This undated HO image obtained on December 21, 2024, shows Taleb Jawad Al Abdulmohsen, the alleged car-ramming perpetrator that killed 5 and injured more than 200 in an attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, on December 20, 2024
The damaged car at the scene after it was driven into a crowd at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany
Hard-right demonstrators take part in a protest after a car drove into the crowd at the market
Firefighters patrol the scene of the crash after a car rammed into a massive crowd of shoppers the Christmas market in Magdeburg
This time he was visited by police after he threatened to commit an attack and or suicide.
In 2015, angry over his 2013 fine, he branded judges racist and threatened to get a gun – but still he was not listed as an official threat.
Al-Abdulmohsen, who backed far-Right groups online, is a self-described ‘Saudi atheist’ who was critical of Berlin for allowing in too many Muslim refugees.
It is believed investigators are looking at his grievances about how Germany was treating Saudi dissident asylum seekers as a motive.
The attack in Magdeburg has stirred up tensions over immigration. At the weekend around 2,100 protesters – some carrying anti-immigration banners – joined a far-Right demonstration.
Last night interior minister Nancy Faeser said the suspect ‘does not fit any existing mould’. She added that he had acted ‘like an Islamist terrorist, though he was clearly ideologically hostile to Islam’.
It comes after it was revealed members of the public as well as officials from Saudi Arabia had tried to raise the alarm over al-Abdulmohsen’s online rants.
In August he wrote: ‘Is there a path to justice in Germany without blowing up a German embassy or randomly slaughtering German citizens?’
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