Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen

Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen
طالب العبدالمحسن
Saudi identification photograph of Abdulmohsen c. 2008
Born	Taleb bin Jawad bin Hussein Al-Abdulmohsen (1974-11-05) 5 November 1974 Hufuf, Saudi Arabia
Nationality	Saudi Arabian
Occupation	Psychiatrist
Years active	2006–2024
Known for	Allegedly perpetrating the 2024 Magdeburg car attack Ex-Muslim activism

Taleb Jawad Al-Abdulmohsen (Arabic: طالب جواد العبدالمحسن; born 5 November 1974) is a Saudi Arabian psychiatrist known for his controversial views on Islam, immigration, and politics. He has identified himself as a vocal critic of Islam in various interviews. Abdulmohsen is also a suspect in the 2024 Magdeburg car attack, which killed 5 people and injured over 200.

He relocated to Germany in 2006 to specialize in psychotherapy, applied for political asylum, which was granted in 2016, even though the Rostock District Court had fined him for "disturbance of public peace through the threat of criminal acts" in 2013.

Early life and education

Talib Jawad Al-Abdulmohsen was born in Hufuf, Saudi Arabia, in 1974. He hailed from a Shiite family in the largely Shiite Al-Ahsa Governorate.

He pursued medical studies and specialized in psychiatry.

Career

In 2006, at age 32, Abdulmohsen relocated to Germany to specialize in psychotherapy. He later applied for political asylum, because he was threatened with death for renouncing Islam.

In 2016, Germany granted him political asylum, citing concerns over his safety and rights, if he was returned to Saudi Arabia. Even though Abdulmohsen is wanted by Saudi Arabia on charges related to terrorism and human trafficking, specifically allegations of facilitating the trafficking of individuals from Saudi Arabia and Gulf states to the European Union, the German government refused to extradite him, citing a lack of due process in Saudi Arabia.

Since March 2020, he worked as a doctor in the Federal Penitentiary at Bernburg, a state prison for drug rehabilitation. Since the end of October 2024, he was no longer on duty due to holidays and illness.

Abdulmohsen's qualification as a health professional was questioned by colleagues, but the hospital management took no action. He had in several cases prescribed false and dangerous medications to patients, whose lives were only saved by attentive nurses. Patients had refused to be treated by him for his shortcomings in the German language, which led to misunderstandings. For his consultation of a search engine for every diagnosis, coworkers told the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung he had been nicknamed "Doctor Google".

2024 Magdeburg car attack

Main article: 2024 Magdeburg car attack

On 20 December 2024, Abdulmohsen allegedly drove a vehicle while under the influence of drugs into a crowded Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, killing at least 5 people, including a nine-year-old child, and injuring over 200 others. He was arrested at the scene.

Personal life and political views

Abdulmohsen lived in Bernburg, about 50 kilometers south of Magdeburg and has been described as an introvert with limited social interactions. Saudi dissidents who knew him personally describe him as isolated and aggressive.

He came to Germany in March 2006 as a visiting doctor during his specialist training as a psychotherapist.

From 2011 to the beginning of 2016, Abdulmohsen lived in Stralsund, where he completed parts of his specialist training. In 2013, a few days after the Boston Marathon bombing, according to the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Ministry of the Interior, he threatened the Medical Association of the state with an attack in the course of disputes over the recognition of examination results for his specialist training. This was followed by a search of his apartment, during which electronic media were also checked. However, the investigators found no evidence of "real preparation for an attack". In the same year, he was sentenced by the Rostock District Court to 90 daily rates of ten euros each for threatening criminal offenses. In January 2014, he is said to have appeared at the local office and asked for financial support. He is said to have threatened both an attack and suicide. The police then sought him out for a threat assessment. In September 2015, he is said to have called the German Chancellery and a month later the judicial authorities, complained about the Rostock verdict and became abusive.

In media appearances, Abdulmohsen has presented himself as an ex-Muslim activist against Islam.

In February 2019, Der Spiegel reported on him, that he would – through his web forum wearesaudis.net and X (then known as Twitter) – help others escape from Saudi Arabia to Germany. In March 2019, Abdulmohsen gave interviews to the Frankfurter Rundschau and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, in which he was presented as an escape/migration helper. In these he said about himself, "I am the most aggressive critic of Islam in history. [...] There is no good Islam." Also in 2019 Abdulmohsen appeared on the BBC showcasing his website intended to help asylum seeking apostates, "especially from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region". He founded an online platform to help Saudi Arabian citizens apply for asylum in Germany and claimed that Germany was giving asylum to "Syrian jihadists."

The Atheist Refugee Relief had originally considered working with Abdulmohsen to coordinate aid for atheist refugees from Saudi Arabia. However, this cooperation failed. The Secular Refugee Aid stated that in 2019, members of the refugee aid organization filed a complaint against A. "after the most vile slander and verbal attacks," which led to a legal dispute lasting several years, which A. lost in the Cologne Regional Court in August 2023. At the time of the attack, the case was on appeal before the Higher Regional Court of Cologne. The German-based Atheist Refugee Relief said that the alleged perpetrator was not a member of the organization and claimed that he made many false "accusations and claims" against them and their former board members. It also distanced itself from Abdulmohsen "in the strongest terms" and added that its members filed a criminal complaint against him following “the most foul slander and verbal attacks" in 2019.

The Saudi monarchy is said to have warned German security authorities about Abdulmohsen at least three times between November 2023 and December 2024, but the warnings were ignored, after he posted extremist views on his X account threatening peace and security. The Foreign Intelligence Service of Germany had received a report from Saudi Arabia that Abdulmohsen had announced something big in Germany as early as 2023 and are said to have followed up on this tip. In the fall of 2023, a woman who had been in contact with Abdulmohsen via the Internet tried to warn the police in Berlin that Abdulmohsen wanted to kill 20 Germans. However, she sent her email to the police in Berlin, New Jersey.

In February 2024, the Berlin Public Office accused him of abuse of emergency calls, because he had placed an emergency call for the fire brigade in the building of the Berlin police without an emergency. A criminal order was issued with 20 daily rates at 30 euros each. He did not appear for the hearing on 19 December, one day before the attack.

In an X post from 5 December 2024, Abdulmohsen declared that Angela Merkel deserved the death penalty for "her secret criminal project of Islamizing Europe" and criticized her policies that according to him would have seen German women face similar restrictions as seen in Afghanistan. He also reposted "claims from Alice Weidel warning of a future under Sharia law in Germany, framing her fight as a defence against Islamic dominance." Saudi Arabia issued charges against him for alleged terrorism and facilitating the smuggling of women from Gulf countries to Europe. Despite these allegations, Germany granted him asylum in 2016 and refused to extradite him to Saudi Arabia.

Abdulmohsen shared pro-Israel content on his X profile, he also published a post claiming that "Parts of Syria were lucky enough to join Israel", retweeting a post made by Benjamin Netanyahu which celebrated the fall of Assad.

On X, he had posted an AR-15–style rifle (Juggernaut Tactical JT-15) with a US flag as a profile picture and conspiracy theories such as "Germany is persecuting Saudi asylum seekers inside and outside Germany in order to destroy their lives" and "Germany wants to Islamize Europe." Several well-known officials of the German far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) and its right-wing extremist youth organization Junge Alternative followed his X account. Furthermore, he expressed his sympathy on X for the AfD and dreamed of a joint project with the far-right party: an academy for ex-Muslims. He also made a website that tried to help ex-Muslims gain asylum in other countries, and he considers himself an atheist as of 2019.

In a 45-minute video interview on the anti-Islamic US blog, the RAIR Foundation, eight days before the attack, Abdulmohsen spread theories that the German state is conducting a "covert secret operation" to "hunt and destroy the lives" of Saudi ex-Muslims around the world, but at the same time Syrian jihadists are receiving asylum in Germany. In the interview, he said that he was not a right-winger, but a leftist, but at the same time explained that as a leftist he had come to the conclusion that the left were the "worst criminals on the planet".

Abdulmohsen had shared similar right-wing ideological content, including content from German politician Alice Weidel of AfD, Alex Jones, and Elon Musk. He shared a video by German right-wing influencer Naomi Seibt.

In May 2024, Abdulmohsen wrote, "I seriously expect to die this year. The reason: I will ensure justice at any cost. And the German authorities are hindering any peaceful path to justice." On the day of the attack, he posted more videos on his social media profile on X. A few minutes before the attack, he posted more videos. In one of them, he said, "The police themselves are the criminals. In this case, I hold the German nation, I hold the German citizens responsible for what is in store for me." In another one, he said: "I hold the German nation responsible for the killing of Socrates." and "Another reason why I hold German citizens responsible for the persecution I experience in Germany is the story of a USB stick stolen from my mailbox." He also said: "The police themselves are the criminals. In this case, I hold the German nation, I hold the German citizens responsible for what is in store for me."

Abdulmohsen's X account was focused on anti-Islam themes and criticism of Islam while he congratulated Muslims who left the religion. He also described himself as a former Muslim and criticized German authorities for failing to combat the “Islamism of Europe" and supported the AfD. He was described as an activist who helped Saudi women flee their homeland and he appeared to be focused on his theory that "German authorities have been targeting Saudi asylum seekers." He "had been sharing Islamophobic views for years" according to Euronews. German media has identified an account on X, where he argued that "Germany wants to Islamize Europe". Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said that the authorities can confirm that the suspected perpetrator was "evidently Islamophobic".

On 21 December 2024, chairwoman Mina Ahadi of the Central Council of Ex-Muslims stated that A. was "no stranger, because he has been terrorizing us for years." "He has had two lives," Mina Ahadi told the German Press Agency. "If you have been dealing with him for a long time, you have a strange feeling. He has literally terrorized members of the association." Ex-Muslims who had known Taleb, including Mahyar Tousi, founder of Tousi TV, and Iranian German businessperson Maral Salmassi, claimed that he was a Shia extremist who pretended to be an atheist in order to gain asylum, engaging in the practice of Taqiyya in order to hide his true beliefs. Ex-Muslim activists Ali Utlu and Yasmine Mohammed stated that Talha had been threatening ex-Muslims, while Brother Rachid, who often interviews ex-Muslims, stated that he would have often make up excuses to avoid giving him an interview.

According to information from several public broadcasters and private media in Germany, people have reported to the police several times because of threats of violence from Abdulmohsen.

Der Spiegel reported that Elon Musk was one of his role models and that Abdulmohsen declared "If you listen to someone like Tommy Robinson or even Elon Musk, and even if you're ignorant of the process of Islamization, you'll think they're conspiracy theorists. But I can say from experience that anything Robinson says, what Musk says, what Alex Jones says, or anyone who is labeled a radical or a right-wing extremist by mainstream media—they're telling the truth." He also wrote, "Me and AfD are fighting the same enemy to protect Germany." Germany's FAZ described him as an anti-Islam activist and told Newsweek that in a 2019 interview with him, he declared that he was "history's most aggressive critic of Islam" and to "ask the Arabs" if they doubted him. An unnamed German official cited by The Washington Post stated that "an X account appearing to be affiliated with the suspect contained content condemning Islam" and described him as a Saudi dissident.