A car as a weapon: the Magdeburg attack in December 2024 evoked memories of Anis Amri’s 2016 strike on Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz and the truck attack in Nice.
Shortly after 7 p.m. in December 2024 a man drove a rented car into a crowd at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt. The strike killed a 9-year-old boy and five women aged 45 to 75. More than 300 people were injured, some seriously. Prosecutors say the attack lasted one minute and four seconds.
The trial of Taleb A.*, a 50-year-old man from Saudi Arabia, began Monday (10.10.2025) at Magdeburg Regional Court. The indictment charges him with murder, 338 counts of attempted murder and a “treacherous attack” motivated by “base motives.” Prosecutors said they would seek the German legal equivalent of a first-degree murder conviction.
The indictment assumes he acted alone: investigators say he planned and prepared the act in detail over several weeks without accomplices. His profile differs from Islamist attackers such as Amri. Taleb A. has lived in Germany since 2006 and most recently worked as a doctor in a forensic psychiatric unit for convicted offenders in Bernburg, about 40 kilometers south of Magdeburg.
An investigating committee in the Saxony-Anhalt state parliament has found the defendant had long-standing health problems and is probing why the market lacked protective bollards, which have been widely used since Breitscheidplatz. Authorities say the defendant exploited that security gap and drove through the crowd at speeds up to 46 km/h (28.5 mph).
Media reports, citing an expert opinion from the Salam Center for prevention of violence and radicalization, describe the attack as a planned act of terrorism. Other reports say the defendant shared large amounts of material from international right-wing figures and conspiracy theorists about an “Islamization of Europe” and is a sympathizer of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which is under observation for right-wing extremism.
Security agencies were aware of the defendant. Police carried out several Gefährderansprachen—threat assessment conversations—in 2023 and 2024. Authorities said he could not be clearly assigned to an extremist category such as Islamic, right-wing or left-wing extremism.
Because of the large number of victims, the court has rented a newly built lightweight hall to seat participants. There are more than 140 co-plaintiffs and the prosecution has listed over 400 witnesses.
In July it emerged the defendant had written letters from his cell to injured survivors, addressing them by name and asking for forgiveness. Many recipients said the letters retraumatized them; investigators suspect he copied contact details from documents held by his defense lawyers.
On the first day of trial Taleb A. did not respond directly to the charges. Instead he spoke at length—erratically, according to the court—about Saudi Arabia, what he called manipulated German media, Islamism, women’s rights and sex education, and accused the judiciary and police of corruption. After about an hour presiding judge Dirk Sternberg interrupted him and adjourned until Tuesday.
Taleb A. has been in custody since the attack. If convicted he faces life imprisonment for murder followed by preventive detention, a measure intended to protect the public after a prison term. It is the most severe sanction under German criminal law.
This article was originally written in German. It was first published on November 10 and later updated with observations from the court proceedings.
*Editor’s note: DW follows the German press code, which stresses protecting the privacy of suspected criminals or victims and urges refraining from revealing full names of alleged criminals.
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