Courtroom murder of Egyptian woman wanted to die (Roundup)

Nov 3, 2009, 16:20 GMT

   Dresden - A police officer testified on Tuesday that Alex W, accused of murdering a pregnant Egyptian woman in court, had asked to be killed after the deed.

Policemen who stormed the courtroom when they heard the commotion, described the bloody, chaotic scene that greeted them after the attack, which occurred during a hearing on July 1.

   Alex W, a German of Russian origin, is accused of stabbing to death Marwa al-Shirbini, 31, during the appeal hearing after he had been already been ordered to pay a fine for insulting the headscarf- wearing mother at a children's playground in 2008.

   The trial has aroused strong emotions in al-Shirbini's native Egypt, where the case has made front-page news.

   Taking the witness stand on the sixth day of the trial, one policeman said it was difficult to judge the situation when W attacked al-Shirbini in court.

As the officers burst into the courtroom they saw two men fighting over a knife, surrounded by overturned chairs, shifted tables and blood everywhere, one policeman said of the scene.

   'They were in motion, I could not tell who had the knife,' said a 33-year-old officer, adding that the men did not respond to demands they stop fighting. 'Then there was a shot.'

   The shot, fired by another officer, hit the husband of al-Shirbini in the thigh, as he was trying to defend his wife. The policeman who mistakenly fired the shot is under separate investigation, and has submitted an official account of events.

'We only found out after the shot who the perpetrator was,' said another policeman.

The officer said Alex W, 28, resisted arrest and asked instead to be killed.

'As he lay on the floor, he said he wanted me to shoot him as he didn't want to go to jail,' the policeman said.

On the previous day, friends of the defendant had described Alex W as a loner who had entertained suicidal thoughts and lacked a purpose in life.

An investigator said the entire attack, with a sharpened knife that W smuggled into the court, took no longer than 25 seconds.

   The prosecution has argued that the perpetrator was motivated by a 'pure hatred of non-Europeans and Muslims.'    

   He had called al-Shirbini a 'terrorist' and a 'slut' when they first met in August 2008, after she asked him to move from a swing her young son wanted to use.

There was no evidence that W belonged to a right-wing group, but he had made it clear in court that he sympathised with the extreme right-wing National Democratic Party (NPD), who he had voted for.

   W, who is unemployed, is charged with murder, attempted murder and causing aggravated bodily harm. He faces life imprisonment if convicted.