Germans Chant ‘Deport’ After Christmas Market Attack, Details of Criminal Past of ‘Doctor’ Suspect Emerge

Rival protests took to the streets of Magdeburg on Monday evening, which had been the scene of an apparent terrorist attack last week, allegedly by a Saudi Arabian who is now known to have been convicted of threatening attacks in the past.

The leader of Alternative for Germany (AfD), Alice Weidel addressed a rally of supporters at the Cathedral Square, Magdeburg on Monday night, telling those present asylum seekers who seek to kill Germans should be deported. Germany should not allow repeats of Friday’s attack, in which a car allegedly driven by a Saudi Arabian refugee was ploughed through crowds at the town’s Christmas market.

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The main suspect in the attack is 50-year-old Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a migrant from Saudi Arabia who arrived in Germany in 2006. Initially a work migrant who had a scholarship from the Saudi government to study medicine in Germany, it is claimed al-Abdulmohsen later became critical of his home nation and denounced Islam.

Fresh details about the time al-Abdulmohsen spent in Germany have emerged since the attack he is alleged to have authored, calling the judgement of the German state seriously into question, given the decisions made apparently in the face of warnings and alarming behavior.

As now revealed by German newspaper Die Welt, even before al-Abdulmohsen was granted asylum status and given leave to remain in the country he exhibited erratic behaivour, and was convicted for disturbing the peace” over apparent terroristic threats made in 2013.

It is reported al-Abdulmohsen had been in the process of getting his certifications to practice medicine in Germany and was applying for professional examination at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Medical Association, but upon being told he needed to submit additional documents, he handed the organisation a deadline to comply with his demands and a threat. Court documents unearthed from his 2014 prosecution states he told the medical association that “something bad with international significance” would happen to them, adding: “Have you seen the pictures from Boston? Things like that happen here too”.

This apparent threat was made by al-Abdulmohsen just days after the Boston Marathon Bombing and, consequently, the police were called. In court, al-Abdulmohsen insisted he had been under a lot of pressure because of his situation with Saudi Arabia, and claimed he only meant to threaten negative newspaper stories about the organisation, not an actual terrorist attack.

Further, he accused the medical association staff of assuming he meant an actual terror attack because they were prejudiced against Arabs.

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Remarkably despite this run-in with the law, al-Abdulmohsen was later granted a licence to practice medicine as a psychiatrist in Germany, and was granted asylum status in 2016.

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As recently as August, al-Abdulmohsen had written on social media: “If Germany wants war, we will have it … we will slaughter them”.

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Attendees of the rally chanted “deport, deport, deport”.

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