Court acquits woman who called policeman "racist"

Mar 24, 2010, 19:59 GMT

Erlangen, Germany - A German court acquitted on Wednesday a woman who had called a policeman 'racist,' saying the remark was covered by free-speech laws, even if it was offensive to the police.

Sabine Schiffer, who runs a private academic institute in the southern city of Erlangen, had criticized a police officer who ran into a Dresden courtroom while Marwa el-Shirbini, 31, a pregnant Egyptian pharmacist, was being stabbed to death last June.

The officer, who had been waiting to give evidence in another courtroom, shot Shirbini's Egyptian husband, who had just wrested away the knife, instead of shooting the assailant in the blood-soaked melee.

Schiffer claimed this was because of the Egyptian's skin colour, whereas German prosecutors concluded it was just a panicked blunder.

The court in Erlangen quashed a criminal-libel charge against Schiffer, courthouse spokesman Thomas Koch said. He said the officer's desire to protect his good name was secondary to free speech. Prosecutors can still appeal the decision.

Schiffer welcomed the ruling and demanded an 'independent inquiry' into the Shirbini killing, which caused outrage in Egypt. The assailant, a Russian-born immigrant, was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder.