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A German court sentenced a 51-year-old psychiatrist to life in prison on Friday for a fatal car attack at a Christmas market in Magdeburg in December 2024. The attack killed six people, including a 9-year-old child, and left over 300 injured.
Taleb A., a Saudi Arabian-born national who had lived in Germany since 2006 and worked as a psychiatrist, drove a rented BMW through a security gap at the market and intentionally plowed into crowds. The court identified him only by his initials due to German privacy laws.
During the seven-month trial, A. confessed to the crime but expressed minimal remorse, citing trivial grievances such as a hard prison mattress. The judges ruled his actions carried a “particular gravity of guilt,” ensuring he will not qualify for parole after 15 years.
The trial drew significant public interest, prompting the construction of a temporary courtroom to accommodate 200 plaintiffs, their relatives, and media personnel who attended the proceedings.
At the time of the attack, A. was employed at a psychiatric hospital in Bernburg, a town 25 miles south of Magdeburg. The incident is part of a series of deadly attacks in 2024 and 2025 by foreign-born perpetrators in Germany, which eroded public safety perceptions and contributed to rising support for the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
