How did El-Sherbini die?
23520421#26
El-Sherbini's death caused considerable public and media attention in Egypt, accompanied by strong anti-German sentiments. Egypt's Prosecutor General Abdel Meguid Mahmud announced that a prosecutor from Alexandria was to be dispatched to Germany to assist in the investigation, and the Egyptian Pharmacists' Association called for a boycott of German drugs. At El-Sherbini's funeral in Alexandria, mourners referred to her as "a 'martyr' of the head scarf" and accused Germany of "racism" and "Islamophobia." Mourners carried banners criticising both German and Egyptian authorities' reactions to the crime. Egyptian police temporarily cordoned off the German embassy in Cairo to protect it from angry protesters. In response to the anti-German sentiments and public protests in Egypt and elsewhere, the German government eventually issued a statement of condolence. Some Egyptian commentators took a reconciling approach. Writing in the opinion section of "Al-Ahram Weekly", Abdel-Moneim Said called on those who mourn for Marwa El-Sherbini "not [to fall] into the same morass of bigotry and hatred that killed her," but to "create Arab-Muslim-European fronts, together with other faiths, to stand up against fanaticism, bigotry and discrimination on both sides."
Murder of Marwa El-Sherbini
23520421#0
Marwa Ali El-Sherbini (), was an Egyptian woman and German resident who was killed in 2009 during an appeal hearing at a court of law in Dresden, Germany. She was stabbed by Alex Wiens, an ethnic German immigrant from Russia against whom she had testified in a criminal case for verbal abuse. El-Sherbini's husband, who was present at the hearing, tried to intervene. He too was repeatedly stabbed by Wiens and was then mistakenly shot and wounded by a police officer who was called to the court room. Wiens was arrested at the crime scene and subsequently tried for murder and attempted murder. He was found guilty of both charges; it was also found that Wiens's actions constituted a heinous crime, because they were committed in front of a child, against two people, in a court of law, and fulfilled the murder criterion of treacherousness, such as hatred against foreigners. Wiens was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Murder of Marwa El-Sherbini
23520421#5
On 21 August 2008, Wiens and El-Sherbini met at a public playground in Dresden's Johannstadt district, where Wiens's niece and El-Sherbini's son were playing. During a quarrel over whose child should be using the playground's swing, Wiens began shouting verbal abuse at El-Sherbini. El-Sherbini who was wearing an Islamic headscarf, was called "Islamist", "terrorist" and (according to one report) "slut". Other people present tried to intervene, but Wiens vehemently continued the verbal abuse for several minutes, directing epithets in Russian and German at the Russian-speaking bystanders who attempted to reason with him. El-Sherbini called the police on a bystander's mobile phone and within a few minutes four police officers arrived in two vehicles at the scene. El-Sherbini and Wiens were questioned; El-Sherbini was subsequently driven away in one of the police vehicles.
Murder of Marwa El-Sherbini
23520421#9
Following Wiens's defence statement, El-Sherbini testified to the court. After El-Sherbini had finished her testimony, the judge asked whether there were any further questions. Wiens replied and asked why above all El-Sherbini was in Germany. The question was rejected by the judge; Wiens responded with a further question to which the defence counsel motioned for recess. El-Sherbini was not intending to wait until the end of the hearing and tried to leave. When she, her husband, and their three-year-old son were at the door, Wiens suddenly attacked El-Sherbini with a kitchen knife with an long blade, which he apparently had taken into the courtroom in a backpack. El-Sherbini received more than 15 stab wounds to the upper body and arm; the attack was carried out in such a forceful and sudden manner that it resulted in a notable absence of defence wounds. While trying to protect his wife, El-Sherbini's husband Okaz was stabbed at least 16 times to the head, neck, upper body and arm. Wiens's defence counsel tried to help El-Sherbini by obstructing Wiens with chairs and a table. The victim's three-year-old son was injured while being ushered to safety.
Murder of Marwa El-Sherbini
23520421#2
Marwa El-Sherbini was born in 1977 in Alexandria, Egypt, to the chemists Ali El-Sherbini and Laila Shams. In 1995, she graduated from El Nasr Girls' College, where she had acted as a student speaker. El-Sherbini went on to study pharmacy at Alexandria University, obtaining a bachelor's degree in pharmaceutical sciences in 2000. From 1992 to 1999, she was a member of the Egypt national handball team. In 2005, El-Sherbini moved with her husband, Elwy Ali Okaz, to Bremen, Germany. In 2008, the couple and their two-year-old son moved to Dresden, where Okaz, a lecturer at Minufiya University, obtained a doctoral research position at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics. El-Sherbini worked at the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus in Dresden and at a local pharmacy as a part of an accreditation programme to practice pharmacy in Germany.
Murder of Marwa El-Sherbini
23520421#17
In October 2009 in an out-of-court discussion, lawyers on behalf of El-Sherbini's family and widower approached the Ministry of Justice of the State of Saxony about compensation. In the verdict on 11 November 2009, Judge Birgit Wiegand granted the claimant's request ("Adhäsionsantrag", § 406 StPO) to claim for damages against the defendant in an 'adherent case' within the remit of this criminal case. It established — without a separate trial for a private law claim — that Wiens has an obligation to compensate Okaz and El-Sherbini's beneficiaries for having harmed Okaz and killed El-Sherbini.
Murder of Marwa El-Sherbini
23520421#21
The Central Council of Muslims in Germany suggested that the death of El-Sherbini was a result of a growing "Islamophobia", evident in many Internet discussion boards. They called upon Muslims not to instrumentalise the woman's death. A local Islamic association in Dresden stated that their planned centre for cultural exchange will be named after El-Sherbini, to promote mutual understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims.
Murder of Marwa El-Sherbini
23520421#23
In December 2009, the Ministry of Justice in Saxony announced plans to commemorated the death of El-Sherbini with a memorial plaque in the regional court building. This plaque will state both in German and Arabic language: "[Marwa El-Sherbini] She fell victim to Islamophobia and xenophobia. With dignity and commendable moral courage she withstood this."
Murder of Marwa El-Sherbini
23520421#27
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed the German government for El-Sherbini's murder and called for international condemnation of Germany. In a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Ahmadinejad demanded firm action against Germany and stated that "there is a strong view that the crime was a pre-planned attempt engineered by the judicial system and security forces". Iran also issued a postage stamp featuring El-Sherbini, which Press TV reported was banned in Egypt. "Al-Wafd" an Egyptian newspaper accused Iran of exploiting the killing of El-Sherbini to turn Muslims and Arabs against Europe and the US.
Murder of Marwa El-Sherbini
23520421#22
On 6 July 2009, about 2,000 Muslims of the Egyptian community and other nationalities in Germany held funeral prayers for El-Sherbini, in Dar Al-Salam Mosque, in Berlin. Five days later a public memorial was organized by civil rights groups in Dresden; it was attended by more than 1,000 people, including the Egyptian ambassador and officials from the state of Saxony; white roses and photos of El-Sherbini and her family were placed outside Dresden City Hall. About the same time, the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, where El-Sherbini's husband researches, issued a statement on the occasion of the official ceremony, expressing shock and sympathy. This was preceded by the Max Planck Society having strongly condemned the attack on 8 July, by stating: "The fact that the attack was racially motivated is especially distressing to us, considering that the Max Planck Society is a scientific research organisation with staff members from the most various nations."
Murder of Marwa El-Sherbini