Saudi doctor given life sentence for deadly car rampage on German Christmas market

MAGDEBURG, June 26 (Reuters) – A Saudi doctor was sentenced to life in prison on Friday for killing six people and injuring hundreds, ramming a rented BMW into crowds at a historic market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg days before Christmas in 2024.

The attack shocked the country and stirred up tensions over the charged issue of immigration, months before a general election that was held in February 2025.

The defendant, identified as Taleb A. in accordance with German privacy laws, was a psychiatrist originally from Saudi Arabia described by officials as having a history of anti-Islamic rhetoric and far-right sympathies.

Prosecutors had charged him with murdering six people and the attempted murder of hundreds more in an attack they say lasted one minute and four seconds and was planned over several weeks. Five women between the ages of 45-75 and a nine-year-old boy were killed.

The defendant appears to have acted out of dissatisfaction and frustration regarding the outcome of a civil law dispute and his lack of success in various criminal complaints, prosecutors have said, believing him to have acted alone.

(Writing by Matthias Williams, Editing by Friederike Heine)