Magdeburg (dpa) – After the attack on the Christmas market in Magdeburg which left five people dead and many seriously injured, the political reckoning with the violence has begun. The Council of Elders of the Saxony-Anhalt state parliament – the parliament’s governing body – is due to meet in Magdeburg today, while the Bundestag’s Committee on Internal Affairs is likely to address the horrific crime as well. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Saxony-Anhalt’s Minister President Reiner Haseloff visited the site of the attack at the weekend along with other ministers.
Arrested immediately after speeding through the Christmas market in a hired vehicle, the perpetrator is currently being held in custody. He is a doctor who is resident in Bernburg, south of Magdeburg. Originally from Saudi Arabia, the man has lived in Germany since 2006 and was granted asylum as a politically persecuted person in 2016. The head of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) said that the suspect held Islamophobic views and had engaged with right-wing extremist platforms.
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