PUZZLED BY MOTIVE
Police were still puzzling over why the driver smashed a rented SUV at high speed through the crowd of revellers, bringing death and chaos to the festive event.
Abdulmohsen had in his many online posts voiced strongly anti-Islam views, anger at German authorities and support for far-right conspiracy narratives on the “Islamisation” of Europe.
Die Welt daily, citing unnamed security sources, reported that Abdulmohsen had been treated for a mental illness in the past, but this has not been confirmed by authorities.
The Saudi suspect has been remanded in custody in a top-security facility on five counts of murder and 205 of attempted murder, prosecutors said, but not so far on terrorism-related charges.
Even as the attacker’s motive remained unclear, the attack has moved the flashpoint issues of security and immigration back to the centre of German politics ahead of the Feb 23 elections.
The mass-circulation Bild Daily wrote that “although the background to the terrible attack in Magdeburg has not yet been clarified, it is already clear: there will be a ‘before’ and an ‘after’ in this election campaign”.
