The suspect in the German Christmas market attack “threatened to do something that would attract international attention” in 2013 and was flagged as a potential threat the following year, according to a state interior minister.
Christian Pegel told a press conference the 50-year-old suspect had referred to the Boston Marathon bombings, in which three people were killed and hundreds injured in an Islamist terrorist attack in April 2013, during a professional dispute at around that time.
He was fined after no evidence was found of Islamist tendencies or that he was preparing to commit such an act, said the interior minister for Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, a state in northern Germany.
German Christmas market attack – latest updates
The suspect has been named by German media as Taleb A, with his surname being withheld in line with privacy laws, although the name has not been confirmed by German authorities.
He is a Saudi citizen who worked as a doctor, who specialised in psychiatry and psychotherapy, and arrived in Germany in 2006.
The aftermath of the Christmas market attack. Pic: Reuters
In January 2014, the suspect was flagged as a potential threat and police held a radicalisation review discussion with him following another incident, said Mr Pegel.
He told the press conference the suspect said “he would carry out actions that would attract international attention and that people would long remember” while trying to obtain funding for his living expenses from a public authority in the city of Stralsund.
He also said he wouldn’t leave until his application was granted, that he might be forced to take “further action” and that “they would be responsible for his suicide”, according to the minister.
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The suspect was told he should stop acting in this manner and committing such offences and that the authorities would be keeping an eye on him, he added.
Mr Pegel said records show he spent time in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern between 2011 and January 2016, probably as part of his training to qualify as a specialised doctor.
Five people, including nine-year-old Andre Gleissner, were killed and more than 200 injured when a car ploughed into crowds in Magdeburg on Friday evening.
The suspect was remanded in custody after appearing before a judge on Saturday evening.
He is being investigated for five counts of suspected murder and 205 counts of suspected attempted murder, prosecutor Horst Walter Nopens said.
Social media posts apparently shared by the suspect describe him as a former Muslim.
He has shared anti-Muslim views and was highly critical of German authorities, voicing support for the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.