Saudi authorities, I am told, are currently working hard to gather all the information they have on Magdeburg market suspect Taleb al-Abdulmohsen and share it with the ongoing German investigation "in any way possible."
Inside the imposing, sand-colored walls of Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry in Riyadh, there is a sense of perhaps justifiable unease.93ebee30-c064-11ef-aff0-072ce821b6ab.jpg.webp
The ministry had previously warned the German government against al-Abdulmohsen's extremist views.
It had sent four "verbal notes," three to German intelligence and one to the Foreign Ministry in Berlin. There was no response, according to the Saudis.
Part of the explanation may be that Taleb al-Abdulmohsen was granted asylum in Germany in 2016, a year after former Chancellor Angela Merkel opened her country's borders to more than 10,000 people from the Middle East, and 10 years later - Abdulmohsen settled in Germany.
Coming from a country where Islam is the only religion allowed to be practiced in public, al-Abdulmohsen was a very unusual citizen.
He had turned his back on Islam, becoming a heretic in the eyes of many.
Born in the Saudi city of Hofuf, a palm oasis, in 1974, little is known about his early life before he decided to leave Saudi Arabia to settle in Europe at the age of 32.
Active on social media, on his Twitter account (later X), he also presents himself as a psychiatrist and the founder of a Saudi human rights movement, with the tag @SaudiExMuslims.
He founded a website aimed at helping Saudi women leave their country for Europe. The Saudis accuse al-Abdulmohsen of being a human trafficker, and Interior Ministry investigators, Mabaatheth, are said to have a very comprehensive file on him.
In recent years, there have been reports of Saudi dissidents being subjected to hostile wiretapping by Saudi government agents in Canada, the United States, and Germany.
There is no doubt that German authorities, both federal and regional, made serious errors of omission in the case of al-Abdulmohsen.
Whatever his reason for not responding, as the Saudis claim, to repeated warnings about his extremism, he appeared to be a danger to his adopted host country.
It is also, separately, the fact that he did not block, or at least did not guard, the emergency entrance to the Magdeburg market that allowed him to drive his BMW into the crowd. German authorities defended the market view and said an investigation into the suspect's background was ongoing.
But a complicating factor here is that Saudi Arabia, while considered a friend and ally of the West, has a poor human rights record.
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Until June 2018, Saudi women were banned from driving, and even those who had publicly called for the ban to be lifted before then were persecuted and imprisoned.
Saudi Arabia's crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, who is only 30 years old, is hugely popular in his country.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attends his meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, October 23, 2024
image captionThe Saudi crown prince is pictured in Riyadh during a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in October.
While Western leaders have largely distanced themselves from him following his alleged involvement in the gruesome murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, which the crown prince denies, his star is still rising in the country. Under his de facto rule, Saudi public life has been transformed for the better, with men and women allowed to associate freely, cinemas reopened, major sporting and entertainment events held, and even concerts by Western artists such as David Guetta and the Black Eyed Peas.
But there is a paradox here.
While Saudi public life has flourished, there has been a simultaneous crackdown on anything that even hints at greater political or religious freedom.
Heavy prison sentences of 10 years or more have been handed out for simple tweets.
No one is allowed to question the way the country is run. It is in this context that Germany seems to have abandoned Taleb al-Abdulmohsen.
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