MAGEBURG, June 26 (Reuters) - A Saudi doctor was sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday for killing six people and injuring hundreds after he drove a rented BMW into a crowd at a historic market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg days before Christmas in 2024.

The attack shocked the country and fueled tensions over the controversial issue of immigration, just months before the general election scheduled for February 2025.

The suspect, identified only as “Student A” in accordance with German privacy laws, is a Saudi-born psychiatrist who officials said has a history of anti-Islam rhetoric and sympathy for the far right.

Prosecutors charged him with the murder of six people and the attempted murder of hundreds more in an attack they said lasted one minute and four seconds and was planned over several weeks. The victims included five women aged between 45 and 75 and a nine-year-old boy.

Prosecutors said the defendant appeared to have acted out of dissatisfaction and frustration with the outcome of a civil dispute and his loss in several criminal complaints, and they believe he acted alone.