BERLIN: The suspect in a deadly car ramming attack on a German Christmas market was mentally unwell, “massively Islamophobic and close to right-wing extremist ideologies,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said Thursday.
His erratic behavior over the years had come to the attention of law enforcement on at least 105 occasions without triggering a response, Faeser added.
The figure, compiled after the December 20 attack, showed the need for “better data management by the federal and state security authorities,” Faeser said.
“Police data must be centrally and securely bundled” to identify threats, she told journalists at an event to commemorate the victims in the eastern city of Magdeburg.
The suspect, 50-year-old Saudi psychiatrist Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen, who lived in Germany, was arrested at the scene of the ramming, which left six people dead and over 200 wounded.
Investigators had pieced together the profile of a perpetrator who suffered “psychological issues” and was “influenced by incoherent conspiracy theories,” Faeser said.
The suspect was “massively Islamophobic and close to right-wing extremist ideologies,” she added, and “His hatred is directed against both the German state and against individuals.”
A large amount of information on the suspect had been available before the attack, including a slew of social media posts, Faeser said.
However, “no one had all of the facts,” she said.
The lack of oversight was among the factors that kept authorities from intervening early to stop the attack, she said.
As well as centralising data from different federal and regional authorities, “large amounts of data must also be able to be analyzed using AI” in future, she said.
“We also need new, more precise criteria and action plans to assess the danger posed by people who do not fit the existing mold.”
The attack in Magdeburg came almost eight years to the day after another at a Christmas market in 2016, when a lorry plowed into a crowd in Berlin.
The previous attack, which left 13 people dead, was carried out by an extremist Tunisian and claimed by Daesh.
German Christmas market attack suspect held ‘anti-Islam, far-right’ views
https://arab.news/8z472
German Christmas market attack suspect held ‘anti-Islam, far-right’ views
- Suspect was “massively Islamophobic and close to right-wing extremist ideologies,” German interior minister said
- Lack of oversight was among factors that kept authorities from intervening early to stop the attack, she said
‘Stay out of our politics,’ Australia’s former PM tells Netenyahu
- Turnbull slams Israeli prime minister in Channel 4 interview
- Netanyahu’s attempts to link Bondi massacre to Palestine policy ‘unhelpful’
LONDON: Australia’s former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has told Benjamin Netanyahu to “stay out of our politics” after the Israeli leader linked the recognition of Palestine to the Bondi Beach mass shooting.
Fifteen people were killed when a father and son opened fire on people celebrating the Jewish festival of Hanukkah on Sunday evening.
Netanyahu said Australia's decision to recognize Palestinian statehood earlier this year had poured “oil on the fire of antisemitism” in the weeks leading up to the attack.
When asked about the comments on Channel 4 News in the UK, Turnbull said: “I would respectfully say to Bibi Netanyahu, please stay out of our politics.
“If you've got that kind of commentary to make, you are not helping … and it’s not right.”
Turnbull backed the current Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s government for recogizing Palestinian statehood in August along with many other Western nations as international pressure grew over the war in Gaza.
In a speech after the Bondi attack, Netanyahu said: “A few months ago I wrote to the Australian prime minister that your policy is pouring oil on the fire of antisemitism.”
He added: “Antisemitism is a cancer that spreads when leaders are silent.”
Turnbull said the vast majority of countries in the world recognize Palestine as a state and support a two-state solution to the conflict.
He said Australia is a very successful multicultural society that can not allow foreign conflicts to be imported.
“We need to ensure that that wars in the Middle East or wars in any other part of the world are not fought out here,” he said. “Trying to link them, which is what Netanyahu has done, is not helpful and that's exactly the reverse of what we want to achieve.”
Albanese also rejected Netanyahu’s comments when asked about whether there was a link between his approach to Palestine and the Bondi attack.
“Overwhelmingly, most of the world recognizes a two-state solution as being the way forward in the Middle East,” he told broadcasters. “This is a moment of national unity where we need to come together … We need to wrap our arms around members of the Jewish community who are going through an extraordinarily difficult period.”
Albanese visited in hospital the man hailed a s hero for disarming one of the attackers.
Ahmed Al-Ahmed, a shopkeeper who moved to Australia from Syria in 2007, is recovering after tackling the gunman.
