Suspect in car-ramming attack on German Christmas market charged with murder
The suspect in a fatal car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg has been charged with murder, attempted murder and bodily harm, prosecutors said on Tuesday.
Five women and a nine-year-old boy were killed while more than 300 were injured in the attack on 20 December last year.
Authorities have identified the suspect as a 50-year-old Saudi national who arrived in Germany in 2006 and had received permanent residency.
His name has not officially been released, in keeping with the country's privacy rules. Several German media outlets have referred to him as Taleb A.
In an indictment filed to the state court in Magdeburg, prosecutors said the suspect is charged with six counts of murder, 338 counts of attempted murder and 309 counts of bodily harm. The man is also accused of dangerous interference with road traffic.
In a statement announcing the charges, prosecutors said he acted "with the intention of killing an unspecified but as large as possible number of people in the path of his vehicle".
Murder charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. The Magdeburg court will decide whether to send the case to trial.
The suspect had spent several weeks planning the attack, without accomplices or anyone else knowing about his plans, according to prosecutors.
The attack was carried out with a rented BMW X3, which reached speeds of up to 48 km/h during the rampage. It lasted just over one minute, prosecutors said.
Officials have said the suspect does not match the usual profile of perpetrators of extremist attacks. The man had described himself as a former Muslim faithful who was highly critical of Islam and expressed support for the far right on social media.
The suspect had previously come to authorities' attention for threatening behaviour but was not known to have committed any violence.
He had worked as a doctor in a forensic psychiatry unit for criminals in Bernburg, a town 40 kilometres south of Magdeburg in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt.
Today