Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser revealed on Monday that there are indications the suspect in a deadly car-ramming attack at a Christmas market might have been suffering from mental illness.
Faeser stated that although the motive for the attack, which killed five and injured over 200 people, has not been determined, there are striking signs of a pathological psyche in the Saudi suspect, Taleb al-Abdulmohsen. She stressed the need to learn how to identify and track individuals who may be driven by psychological disturbances or confused conspiracy theories.
The minister highlighted the challenges posed by such perpetrators, saying that they do not fit traditional threat profiles, requiring security services to develop new indicators and action plans.
Abdulmohsen, a Saudi psychiatrist, was arrested at the scene of the December 20 attack in Berlin. Faeser noted that the suspect had sent tens of thousands of tweets over the years, many of which are yet to be fully examined. She called for a thorough investigation into the information available and how it was handled by authorities.
