Reporter who interviewed market-attack suspect recalls ‘twisted mind’

The primary suspect in last week’s Christmas market attack in Germany, Taleb Al Abdulmohsen, was not a radical Islamist but was also “not well” and had a “twisted mind,” a journalist who interviewed the Accused has told RT.

Mustafa Fetouri, a reporter who is also the spokesperson for the Association for the Victims of NATO’s Intervention in Libya, claims he interviewed al-Abdulmohsen for an article several years ago and said it’s unclear what the suspect’s motive might have been, describing him as a “lost soul.”

Last Friday, al-Abdulmohsen allegedly drove his car into a crowd of revellers at the Magdeburg Christmas market, killing at least five people, including a nine-year-old boy, and injuring some 200 more. Arrested at the scene, he has been identified as the primary suspect in the attack.

”I talked to the man many times. I got the feeling that he’s a twisted mind if you will. I wouldn’t say he is crazy or something, but he’s not consistent in his discussions and debates,” Fetouri said.

The journalist said that when he spoke with al-Abdulmohsen in 2019, he said that he had previously been a Shia Muslim and came from a religious family. However, the man said that he disliked everything about it and abandoned the religion, moving to Germany. Since then, al-Abdulmohsen said that he had been helping other people, primarily women, to escape Saudi Arabia.

According to Fetouri, it is unlikely that al-Abdulmohsen carried out Friday’s attack over some religious beliefs because “he has no religion” and is “against all forms of religion, including Christianity, Judaism, you name it.”

According to media reports, al-Abdulmohsen is a 50-year-old Saudi national who has been living in the country for nearly 20 years and has been working as a psychiatrist. He is also said to have repeatedly expressed radical anti-Islamic views in posts on social media and has frequently criticized the German government over its migration policies.

Fetouri also expressed doubts that al-Abdulmohsen is a qualified psychiatrist as has been claimed in the media.

Some, however, have been skeptical of the media’s description of al-Abdulmohsen as an islamophobe, with billionaire Elon Musk accusing the “legacy media” of “lying again” about the suspect’s views and the possible motives for the attack.

German media outlets have also reported that Saudi Arabia had repeatedly warned the German authorities about al-Abdulmohsen, including one year ago. However, it is unclear what the nature of these warnings was and why Berlin did not address the threat ahead of Friday’s attack.