Interior Minister Nancy Feather said authorities could “definitely say that the perpetrator was clearly Islamophobic”.
The chief prosecutor said the suspect was in police custody and had given a statement about the motive for the crime, but he declined to give any details about the statement. Noppens said investigators “don’t know yet if this was a terrorist attack.”
Immediately after Friday night’s attack, right-wing parties seized on reports that the driver was a Saudi Arabian man. The incident occurred almost eight years after a terrorist drove a truck into a Berlin Christmas market.
Immigration has become a big issue in Germany, which welcomed a large number of refugees from Syria in 2015 under former Chancellor Angela Merkel. Donald Trump adviser Elon Musk and Reform Party leader Nigel Farage. direction.
Several German media outlets identified the attacker before prosecutors confirmed his name. The Saudi Arabian received refugee status in 2016, according to Le Monde, a sister publication of Politico owned by the Axel Springer Group.
“Using dirty tricks”
German media also reported that the attacker was a supporter of the Alternative for Germany party. In a 2019 interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Frankfurter Zeitung, Abdulmosen described his anti-Islam advocacy online and his efforts to help Saudi Arabians apply for asylum. “I am the most radical critic of Islam in history. If you don’t believe me, ask the Arabs,” he said.
