A Saudi doctor has been sentenced to life in prison for killing six people and injuring hundreds after driving a rented BMW into a crowd at a historic Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg just days before Christmas in 2024.
The sentence was handed down on Friday, June 26, 2026.
The defendant, identified as Taleb A. in accordance with German privacy laws, is a psychiatrist originally from Saudi Arabia. Authorities described him as having a history of anti-Islamic rhetoric and far-right sympathies.
Prosecutors charged him with six counts of murder and hundreds of counts of attempted murder, alleging that the attack, which lasted one minute and four seconds, had been planned over several weeks.
The victims included five women aged between 45 and 75, and a nine-year-old boy.
According to prosecutors, the defendant acted out of dissatisfaction and frustration over the outcome of a civil legal dispute, as well as his failure to achieve success in several criminal complaints he had filed.
The attack shocked Germany and reignited debate over immigration ahead of the country’s general election in February 2025.
