MAGDEBURG, Germany,— A Saudi doctor was sentenced to life in prison in Germany on Friday after a court found him guilty of killing six people and injuring hundreds when he drove a rented BMW into crowds at a historic market in Magdeburg days before Christmas in 2024, Reuters reported.
The defendant identified as Taleb al-Abdulmohsen was a psychiatrist originally from Saudi Arabia and was described by officials as having a history of anti-Islamic rhetoric and far-right sympathies.
The attack shocked the country and fuelled tensions over immigration months before a general election held in February 2025.
Court spokesperson Christian Loeffler said in a statement that the defendant showed behaviour consistent with a narcissistic personality disorder confirmed by an expert witness adding that he placed himself at the centre of everything and ignored the suffering of others.
Prosecutors said he was charged with six counts of murder and the attempted murder of hundreds saying the attack lasted one minute and four seconds and had been planned over several weeks.
Five women aged between 45 and 75 and a nine-year-old boy were killed in the attack.
Prosecutors said the defendant appeared to act out of frustration over a civil law dispute and failures in various criminal complaints and they believed he acted alone.
The court imposed a life sentence with a finding of exceptional gravity meaning parole is generally not possible after 15 years and the prison term is significantly longer.
The defendant had worked as a psychiatrist at a rehabilitation clinic for addicted offenders in Bernburg about 40 kilometres from Magdeburg since March 2020 but had been absent since the end of October 2024 due to holiday and illness.
Early reactions to the attack on social media compared it to the 2016 Berlin Christmas market attack carried out by an Islamist attacker but attention later shifted to the defendant’s own anti-Islam statements.
He appeared in media interviews in 2019 describing his activism helping Saudis who left Islam to flee to Europe while a Saudi exile group said it had conflicts with him and described him as isolated and difficult to work with.
In a BBC documentary in July 2019 he said he founded wearesaudis.net after becoming an atheist and seeking asylum in Germany.
Local media reported that the defendant showed little remorse spoke in a rambling manner and was repeatedly asked by the judge to be brief during proceedings.
Court officials said he was removed from proceedings when he misbehaved and when he went on a hunger strike and declared himself unfit to stand trial the case continued in his absence.
He also posted video messages on his X account on the day of the attack where he made rambling claims blaming Germany’s liberal policies for the death of Socrates and accusing police of stealing a USB drive and destroying a complaint he had filed.
Holger Muench president of the Federal Criminal Police Office said Germany received a warning from Saudi Arabia about the defendant in 2023 which authorities reviewed but found to be vague.
A large number of victims joined the case as joint plaintiffs represented by around 40 lawyers and a temporary court building was constructed in Magdeburg where the defendant appeared on Friday in a glass enclosure guarded by masked officers on Friday there court.
(With files from Reuters)
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