EGN NEWS DESK
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser mentioned the authorities can “say with certainty that the perpetrator was clearly Islamophobic.”
The chief prosecutor mentioned the suspect is in police custody and has made a press release in regards to the motive for the crime, however he declined to offer any particulars about that assertion. The investigators “don’t but know whether or not it was a terrorist assault,” Nopens mentioned.
In the instant aftermath of the assault Friday night, right-wing events seized on experiences that the driving force was a person from Saudi Arabia. The incident came about virtually eight years to the day after a terrorist drove a truck right into a Christmas market in Berlin.
Migration has grow to be an enormous challenge in Germany, which took in giant numbers of refugees from Syria beneath former Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2015. With exterior commentators from Elon Musk, an adviser to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, to Nigel Farage, chief of Reform UK, already commenting on Friday’s tragedy, it has the potential to steer the controversy even additional in that path.
Several German media shops recognized the alleged attacker earlier than prosecutors confirmed his identify. WELT, a sister publication of POLITICO within the Axel Springer group, mentioned the Saudi Arabian was granted refugee standing in 2016.
‘Using soiled tips’
German media additionally reported that the alleged attacker was an AfD supporter. In 2019 interviews with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Frankurter Rundschau, Abdulmohsen described his on-line anti-Islam advocacy and initiatives to assist Saudis apply for asylum. “I’m essentially the most aggressive critic of Islam in historical past. If you don’t imagine me, ask the Arabs,” he mentioned.
