The suspected attacker from Magdeburg apparently also stayed in Iraq and Syria. US intelligence agencies transmitted “secret”information to German security authorities a few days after the attack in Magdeburg, according to the “Welt am Sonntag”.
According to the report, he stayed in Iraq in 1991. He is said to have traveled to Syria as a “Shia Muslim”with a “religious background”for the first time in 1993. A second trip to Syria is said to have taken place in 1997. He later lived in Boston, USA, for a medical training, it was said. The visas for this were reportedly paid for by the Saudi Arabian government and also partially funded by it for his training.
From his foreigner’s file and the foreigner’s central register, it can be seen, according to the newspaper, that he lived in seven German cities before the fatal journey in Magdeburg and received countless residence permits. He had a residence in Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Bochum, Hanover, Stralsund, Magdeburg and Bernburg (Saale). At times, he stayed abroad, it was further reported.
He first arrived in the Federal Republic on March 3, 2006, with a visa issued by the German Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for the purpose of training, according to the report. In Hamburg, he took a six-month language course in German and then began a training program as a specialist doctor at the University Clinic. His residence permit was extended several times for this purpose. It is said to have expired on July 15, 2008, after he moved to the USA on January 15, 2008, for further training. The reason for his departure was reportedly a further education. He lived in Boston and left the USA on September 30, 2008.
From Boston, he reportedly flew to Frankfurt am Main, it was said. His re-entry to Germany is dated October 1, 2008. A month later, on November 20, 2008, he was assigned to the city of Hamburg as an “illegally registered foreigner”it was further reported. On that day, he was given a certificate of suspension of deportation, or a toleration, the newspaper reported.
The suspected perpetrator was reportedly out of Germany again on December 27, 2008, this time to open a practice in Saudi Arabia. He returned to the Federal Republic with a visa issued by the German Embassy in Riyadh on May 9, 2009, reportedly for further training as a specialist doctor. He had a provisional right of residence and shortly afterwards a residence permit for the purpose of training, as a “guest doctor for further training”it was said. In February 2016, he reportedly filed an asylum application at the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees in Nuremberg. As a result, he was granted refugee status, the report said. In April 2023, he received a settlement permit and thus an unlimited residence permit.