Police investigate German judge over headscarf murder

Nov 14, 2009, 16:08 GMT

   Dresden, Germany - German police began six weeks ago with an inquiry against the German judge who was presiding in a courtroom when a racist man stabbed a pregnant Egyptian mother to death, officials said Saturday.

They are studying whether to lay charges against the duty judge or the senior judge in charge of the courthouse of failing to provide care or of negligence leading to the murder on July 1, senior prosecutor Christian Avenarius said.

He added that a report this week of an official complaint from the family of Marwa el-Shirbini over her death was 'stale news.'

Avenarius said his staff had opened a full-scale criminal inquiry against the judges after Elwy Okaz, the widower, filed the complaint six weeks ago, well before the assailant, Alex Wiens, 29, went on trial.

In the German system, prosecutor-led inquiries can either lead to an indictment or end with the file being closed.

Wiens was sentenced this week to life imprisonment for murder.

The case incensed the Muslim world amid perceptions that el-Shirbini was killed because she had worn a headscarf and that German authorities may not have done enough to protect her from Russian-born Wiens, a self-admitted racist.

Wiens lunged at el-Shirbini while he was being re-tried for insulting her. Since the incident, security has been drastically tightened in Dresden, where anybody could previously come and go as they pleased during court hearings.

Okaz' lawyer said security should have been stepped up in July since Wiens' 'criminal intent' was known.

Sentencing Wiens this week, Judge Birgit Wiegand rejected that, saying Wiens attacked without warning or any advance sign.