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Defendant kills witness in German courtroom (Roundup)

Jul 1, 2009, 16:14 GMT

Dresden, Germany - A defendant killed a female witness in a stabbing drama at a German courtroom on Wednesday, police said. The 28-year-old man was overpowered by police after the knife attack in the east German city of Dresden. A gunshot was fired during the scuffle, which left two people injured. The stabbing happened shortly before the woman, aged 32, was to give evidence in an appeal lodged by the man against a conviction for insulting behaviour. The mass-circulation newspaper Bild said the woman was Egyptian, but prosecutors did not initially confirm this. A court spokesman said the attacker, an unemployed German of Russian extraction, had been fined for insulting the woman at a children's playground in August 2008. He is alleged to have called her an Islamist, a terrorist and a slut when she asked him to return a shovel he had taken from her child at a sandpit. Prosecutors said the man suddenly pulled out a knife and attacked the woman in the courtroom. Bild reported the woman's husband was one of those injured in the scuffle. Prosecutors said the attacker was arrested and was under investigation on suspicion of manslaughter. They said no one was searched for weapons before entering the court. It was the second courtroom slaying in Germany in less than three months. On April 7, a 60-year-old man shot dead his sister-in-law and injured two other people in an inheritance case being heard in Landshut, north-east of Munich. The gunman later shot himself.

Europe News

Defendant kills witness in German courtroom (Roundup)

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