Taleb al-Abdulmohsen
Aljazeera
German court opens trial of Saudi doctor for Christmas market attack
November 10, 2025
A nine-year-old boy and five women were killed in the ramming attack in a busy market.
A court in southeastern Germany is set to open the trial of a Saudi Arabian doctor who is suspected of carrying out a ramming attack last year.
Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a 51-year-old psychiatrist, will appear in court on Monday in the town of Magdeburg, accused of killing six people and wounding more than 300 when he drove a van into a busy Christmas market last December.
The defendant has been charged with six murders, the attempted murder of another 338 people, and committing a “treacherous attack”. The victims killed included a nine-year-old boy and five women aged 45 to 75.
Because of the large number of victims, a hall has been prepared as a special court that will be able to seat all participants, who are believed to include more than 140 co-plaintiffs and 400 witnesses.
The suspect, who has expressed antipathy towards Islam and sympathy with far-right politics, will be seated in a bullet-proof booth amid a heavy presence by German security forces.
Al-Abdulmohsen, who arrived to live in Germany in 2006, has been in custody since the day of the crime on December 20, 2024, faces life imprisonment for murder if found guilty…