German Christmas market attack suspect held on murder charges
A man suspected of driving a car into a German Christmas market in an attack that killed at least five people and injured scores of others faces charges of murder and attempted murder, police said on Sunday, after the man was remanded in custody.
Police in the central city of Magdeburg, where the attack happened on Friday, also reported scuffles at a far-right demonstration attended by around 2,100 people on Saturday night, while other residents took part in sombre remembrance events.
The suspect is a 50-year-old man from Saudi Arabia who has lived in Germany for almost two decades.
A magistrate ordered the man into pre-trial custody after prosecutors pressed charges of murder on five counts, multiple counts of attempted murder and grievous bodily harm, according to a police statement.
It identified the dead as a nine-year-old boy and four adult women, aged 52, 45, 75 and 67.
German authorities have not named the suspect, who has permanent resident status in Germany, and local media reports do not give his full name in keeping with local privacy law. International media, including BBC News and the Guardian, however, are identifying the accused as Taleb al-Abdulmohsen.
The suspect’s X account describes him as a former Muslim. It is filled with tweets and retweets focusing on anti-Islam themes and criticism of the religion, while sharing congratulatory notes to Muslims who left the faith. He was critical of German authorities, saying they had failed to do enough to combat the “Islamification of Europe.” He has also voiced support for the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Police reported scuffles at a protest attended by around 2,100 people on Saturday night, one day after the attack. Right-wingers had billed the gathering on messaging app Telegram as a “demonstration against terror.”
Protesters wearing black balaclavas could be seen holding a large banner with the word “remigration,” a term popular with far-right supporters seeking the mass deportation of migrants and people deemed not ethnically German.
The motive in Friday night’s attack remains unclear.
Published at Sun, 22 Dec 2024 13:40:56 +0000
China sanctions Canadian institutions active on Uyghurs, Tibet
China said on Sunday it was taking countermeasures against two Canadian institutions and 20 people involved in human rights issues concerning the Uyghurs and Tibet.
The measures, which took effect on Saturday, include asset freezes and bans on entry and the targets include Canada’s Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project and the Canada-Tibet Committee, China’s foreign ministry announces on its website.
Rights groups accuse Beijing of widespread abuses of Uyghurs, a mainly Muslim ethnic minority that numbers around 10 million in the western region of Xinjiang, including the mass use of forced labour in camps. Beijing denies any abuses.
China seized control of Tibet in 1950 in what it describes as a “peaceful liberation” from feudalistic serfdom. International human rights groups and exiles, however, have routinely condemned what they call China’s oppressive rule in Tibetan areas.
For the two institutions, China said it is freezing their “movable property, immovable property and other types of property within the territory of China.” It is freezing the property in China of 15 people in the Uyghur institution and five on the Tibet committee, banning them from entering China, including Hong Kong and Macau.
Canada recently announced sanctions on several Chinese officials, citing “grave human rights violations.”
“Canada is deeply concerned by the human rights violations in Xinjiang and Tibet and against those who practise Falun Gong,” Mélanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs said in a statement issued earlier this month.
Calls to the Canadian embassy in Beijing went unanswered. Reuters did not receive an immediate response from the rights groups or Global Affairs Canada.
Published at Sun, 22 Dec 2024 14:50:51 +0000
