In the trial over the attack on the Magdeburg Christmas market, which left six people dead and hundreds injured, the defendant has admitted to planning the act. Taleb A., 51, told the Magdeburg Regional Court on Tuesday, the second day of the proceedings, that he had planned the attack “16 months ago.” He also stated that he began a hunger strike on Monday.
During his hours-long testimony, the defendant said he had visited Magdeburg several times between August 2023 and December 2024 to prepare for the attack. He initially planned a “bomb attack” on the public prosecutor’s office using gas cylinders but later abandoned that idea, as well as a planned assault on a café.
He explained that his motivation was to draw attention to his causes, including the protection of Saudi Arabian women. “I just wanted the world to hear me — that we suffer, that we are persecuted,” he told the court.
The trial opened on Monday with the reading of the charges. According to the indictment, the Saudi-born doctor drove a rental car through the crowded Christmas market in Magdeburg on December 20 last year, hitting numerous people. A nine-year-old boy and five women aged between 45 and 75 were killed, and more than 300 others were injured.
The Naumburg Public Prosecutor General’s Office believes A. intended to kill “an indeterminate large number of people.” At the start of the trial on Monday, he admitted to being behind the wheel of the car.
On Tuesday, the defendant again commented on the charges but did so vaguely and at times incoherently, digressing into philosophical and religious topics. He also expressed frustration toward German authorities such as the police and the prosecutor’s office, accusing them of failing to support him in his actions against what he described as a “corrupt” refugee aid association in Cologne, and instead investigating him.
According to prosecutors, A.’s “dissatisfaction and frustration” over the outcome of legal disputes and the failure of his criminal complaints served as the motive for the Christmas market attack.
A. stated on Monday that he had begun a hunger strike that he intended to continue for “three weeks.” Presiding Judge Dirk Sternberg addressed the defendant directly, saying, “It is up to you whether you wish to participate in the trial, whether you wish to be present or not.” Sternberg added that if the defendant became unfit to stand trial due to refusing food and drink, the court could continue the proceedings without him.
Under German law, if a defendant “deliberately” renders themselves unfit to stand trial after having already made a statement on the matter, the court may proceed without their presence. “That has happened,” said Judge Sternberg, noting that “the conditions for continuing without the defendant are therefore met.” The trial is currently scheduled to run until March.
Meanwhile, due to security concerns, the Magdeburg city administration has not yet granted approval for this year’s Christmas market. The decision followed a letter from the state administrative authority, which criticized the organizers’ current security plan.
Mayor Simone Borris (independent) warned of the symbolic impact if the market were to be canceled. Such a move, she said on Monday, would amount to “a capitulation of the city’s society to the attack.”
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