I was told that the Saudi authorities are currently working hard to collect everything they have about the suspect in the Magdeburg market, Talib Al-Abdul Mohsen, and to participate with the ongoing German investigation “in all possible ways.”
Within the towering sand-coloured, castle-like walls of the Saudi Foreign Ministry in Riyadh, there is a perhaps justifiable sense of anger.
The ministry had previously warned the German government against Al-Abdul Mohsen's extremist views.
Four so-called “notes verbales” were sent, three of them to German intelligence agencies and one to the Foreign Ministry in Berlin. The Saudis say there was no response.
Part of the explanation for this may lie in the fact that Abdul Mohsen student She was granted asylum from Germany in 2016, one year after her departure Former Chancellor Angela Merkel opened her country's borders To allow the entry of more than a million immigrants from the Middle East, after 10 years of Al-Abd Al-Muhsin’s residence in Germany.
Coming from a country where Islam is the only religion permitted to be practiced in public, Abd al-Muhsin was a very unusual citizen.
He turned his back on Islam, making himself a heretic in the eyes of many.
Born in the Saudi palm oasis city of Hofuf in 1974, little is known about his early life before he decided to leave Saudi Arabia and move to Europe at the age of 32.
Active on social media, on his Twitter account (later X) he describes himself as a psychiatrist and founder of the Saudi Rights Movement, along with the tag @SaudiExMuslims.
He founded a website aimed at helping Saudi women flee their country to Europe.
The Saudis say he was a human trafficker, and Baathist Interior Ministry investigators are said to have an extensive file on him.
There have been reports in recent years of Saudi dissidents being subjected to hostile surveillance by Saudi government agents in Canada, the United States, and Germany.
There is no doubt that the German authorities, both federal and state, committed some serious errors of omission in the case of the benevolent slave.
Whatever the reasons that led them not to heed, as the Saudis claim, repeated warnings about his extremism, it is clear that he posed a danger to his chosen host country.
There is also, separately, the failure to close, or at least guard, the emergency access road to the Magdeburg Alter Markt which allowed him to drive his BMW into the crowds.
The German authorities did He advocated market planning He said the investigation into the suspect's past is continuing.
But the complicating factor here is that Saudi Arabia, despite being considered a friend and ally of the West, has a poor human rights record.
Until June 2018 Preventing Saudi women from driving cars Even those women who had publicly called for the ban to be lifted before were persecuted and imprisoned.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is still in his thirties, enjoys great popularity in his country.
While Western leaders largely distanced themselves from him after his alleged involvement in this horrific operation The killing of Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 The killing of Jamal Khashoggi inThe Crown Prince denies this, but his star at home is still on the rise.
Under his de facto rule, Saudi public life has transformed for the better, with men and women allowed to assemble freely, cinemas reopening, along with large and spectacular sporting and entertainment events, and even concerts performed by Western artists such as David Guetta and The Americans. black eyed peas.
But there is a paradox here.
While Saudi public life flourished, there was a simultaneous crackdown on anything that even suggested more political or religious freedom.
Harsh prison sentences of 10 years or more were issued for simple tweets.
No one is even allowed to question the way the country is run.
Against this background, Germany appears to have dropped the ball with Talib Al-Abdul Mohsen.
