City of Dresden mourns Egyptian woman killed in racist attack

Jul 11, 2009, 16:18 GMT

   Dresden, Germany - The east German city of Dresden paid its last respects on Saturday to an Egyptian woman knifed to death in a racially motivated courtroom attack.

More than 1,500 people attended a memorial service, which heard pleas for racial tolerance and calls for an end to hostility against foreigners.

   Marwa el-Shirbini, 31, was stabbed 18 times by her assailant during a new hearing against a fine imposed on him for insulting her because she wore a headscarf on a city playground.

'Don't let the seeds of extremism open up,' said Nabil Yacoub, a member of the Dresden Council for Foreigners.

Egyptian Ambassador Ramzy Ezz Eldin Ramzy told the gathering the young mother was a victim of unbridled hate and fanaticism, which had its roots in ignorance.

The pregnant woman's 3-year-old-son witnessed the July 1 incident, as did her husband, Elwy Okaz, 32, who is recovering in a Dresden hospital after being knifed as he tried to save his wife.

   The husband, who was doing scientific research paid for by the federally funded Max Planck Society, was also shot in the leg by a policeman who tried to overpower the assailant.

   Police say the Russian-born attacker, 28, had rabid right-wing views but no previous criminal record. He abused el-Shirbini late 2008 when she asked him to get off a swing so her son could use it.

Prosecutors considered the original 750-euro (1,050 dollars) fine he received to be too lenient and asked the court to review it.

   The man was detained immediately after the killing and faces charges of murder. The case against him could begin at the end of the year or early 2010, prosecutors said.

German Social Democrat chairman Franz Muentefering told the memorial service the killing should result in political consequences - namely that right-extremists and racists be banned from forming political parties.

The attack caused widespread outrage in Egypt where some groups claimed Germany was not doing enough to protect Muslims from abuse by xenophobic right-wingers.

   The German government was also criticized for a taking a week to react to the incident and issue a message of condolence.

   Meanwhile, Iranian students hurled eggs at the German embassy in Tehran on Saturday and chanted 'Down with Germany' and 'Down with Racist Europeans.'

   Some of the protesters scrawled 'You are still Nazis - Shame on you Angela Nazi' - a reference to German Chancellor Angela Merkel - on the asphalt in front of the mission before ending their protest.

Merkel expressed Germany's condolences to Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak when the two leaders met on the fringe of G8 summit in Italy on Thursday.

The conservative Iran daily Kejhan called on Muslim nations to expel German ambassadors in retaliation for the killing. Its editor, Hossein Shariatmadari, said conscientious Muslims should be allowed to execute the killer.

   A coordinating council representing Germany's four main national Islamic bodies charged that the woman was a victim of the hate websites that had sprung up after Germany had tried to prevent female teachers wearing head-scarfs.