Germany abandons inquiry into mistaken shooting of Egyptian

Dec 29, 2009, 15:55 GMT

Dresden, Germany - German prosecutors abandoned Tuesday an inquiry into a policeman who opened fire while trying to prevent the courtroom murder of Egyptian mother Marwa el-Shirbini this year.

Instead of shooting Alex Wiens, 29, who was later sentenced to life for murder, the policeman shot Elwy Okaz, the victim's husband, who was trying to save his pregnant wife from the racist stabbing.

'It was very hard to tell what was going on,' the Dresden prosecutions department said.

Both Wiens and Okaz were smeared with el-Shirbini's blood and Okaz had in that moment just wrested the knife-handle out of Wiens' hand 'so that it looked as if he were the person using the knife.'

The police inspector had to act within seconds, and shot Okaz, an Egyptian research scientist, in the thigh.

The prosecutors said they were closing the file, because they could not make any case that the policeman had committed a deliberate or negligent assault on Okaz.

He made a 'tragic mistake' and there was no suspicion that he had been acted negligently or in bad faith in the legal sense. His 'bold intervention' had helped bring the murderous attack to a stop.

The July 1 killing caused outrage in Egypt. The fact that el- Shirbini, a qualified pharmacist who already had a young son, wore a head-scarf led to her being described as a 'scarf martyr.'

Egyptians also criticized the German government for taking a week before issuing an official statement condemning the murder.

The mother had been giving evidence in the Dresden court that Wiens had used anti-Muslim slurs against her on a city playground. Unemployed Wiens suddenly stood up and stabbed her in a frenzy.

Russian-born Wiens who admitted he hated Muslims and other non- Germans was convicted on November 11 and jailed for life.

The police officer and two other federal police happened to be in the courthouse at the time to testify at a different trial and ran to the scene to help when they heard the screams from the melee.

Okaz later accused court authorities of contributing to the killing by leaving security lax. Access has been drastically restricted at the courthouse since June to ensure no one ever again smuggles a knife into the building.