He murdered six people and injured almost 300 other passers-by, some of them critically, when he sped through Magdeburg’s Christmas market in his BMW X3 car last December!
Taleb ab-Abdulmohsen ( aged 50), the Magdeburg death driver, has since been in custody in Dresden prison awaiting trial. But now there has been a controversy at the prison in Saxony.
The doctor, who is originally from Saudi Arabia, went on hunger strike – he refused to eat for a whole 26 days.
The reason: the psychiatrist wanted to protest against the prison conditions in the detention centre (up to 805 prisoners, editor’s note), the newspaper BILD learnt. According to the report, he was not only continuously monitored by video in his cell, but also observed by prison staff – even when he went to the toilet.
In some cases, women would not let him out of their sight.
The reason for the constant surveillance could be evidence of the assassin’s mental illness. However, it is unclear whether he was posing a risk to self-harm. When asked, Dresden Prison refused to comment on the conditions of detention and the hunger strike of the assassin.
After 26 days, Taleb ab-Abdulmohsen was transferred from Dresden prison to the prison hospital in Leipzig. That was around a fortnight ago, as BILD learnt. He has since resumed eating there and is in a stable condition, says his defence lawyer, Munich-based lawyer Dr Alexander Betz.
Dresden Prison confirmed the transfer of Taleb ab-Abdulmohsen to BILD.
‘If a prisoner’s state of health requires inpatient care in a hospital, he can be transferred to the prison hospital,’ explained a spokeswoman for the prison. This is the case here. The prison did not provide any further information.
Lawyer Alexander Betz told BILD: ‘The first task of the defence is now to ensure a fair trial and humane treatment.’
Taleb ab-Abdulmohsen had been living in Germany since 2006 and had a criminal past. The psychiatrist had already been charged six times. Among other things for defamation and threats. Explosive: he had already threatened to carry out an attack years ago and wanted to shoot judges.
A year before the attack at the Christmas market, he posted on the internet. ‘I will make the German nation pay the price for the crimes it has committed against Saudi refugees.’