German Christmas market attack driver receives life sentence

A Saudi doctor has been convicted of charges including murder and sentenced to life in prison over the car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg in 2024 that killed six people.

The defendant, 51-year-old Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, went on trial at the state court in the city in November. The court found that he carries “particularly serious” guilt, German news agency dpa reported. His sentence means he will not be eligible for release after 15 years as is usually the case in Germany.

Five women and a boy died, and many more people were hurt in the attack on December 20 2024 that lasted just over a minute.

Investigators have said that the attack was carried out with a rented BMW X3, which reached speeds of up to 30mph during the rampage. They said when they filed the indictment that the defendant was not under the influence of alcohol, and apparently acted out of dissatisfaction with the outcome of a legal dispute and the failure of various criminal complaints. They also have said that he planned the attack without accomplices.

Officials have said the suspect does not fit the usual profile of perpetrators of extremist attacks. The defendant described himself as an ex-Muslim who was highly critical of Islam, and on social media expressed support for the far-right. He had previously come to authorities’ attention for threatening behaviour but was not known to have committed any violence.

The Magdeburg car-ramming was one of a series of attacks involving immigrants that pushed migration to the forefront of the campaign for Germany’s national election in February 2025. The defendant arrived in Germany in 2006 and had received permanent residency.