Life sentence for brutal racist murder

It started with a seemingly trivial argument about a swing in a children's playground, but soon spiralled into one of the most shocking racist murders Germany has seen since reunification.

Eleven months after that argument, Marwa el-Sherbini, a beautiful, well-educated Egyptian woman expecting her second child, was stabbed to death with a 30cm knife in front of judges in open court in Dresden.

Her husband tried to protect her and was attacked for his pains. He was left clinging to his 31-year-old Muslim wife in a pool of her blood on the court floor, as their 3-year-old son looked on.

The case provoked outrage throughout the Muslim world. She was dubbed the "veil martyr".

Yesterday her killer, a 28-year-old German of Russian extraction, was sentenced to life imprisonment. The court accepted the prosecution's argument that Alexander Wiens was driven by "an unbridled hatred of foreigners".

In August last year Sherbini strolled into a children's playground. She was wearing jeans, a white blouse and the only indication that she was Muslim was a small headscarf. With her was her son, Mustafa.

The toddler wanted to try the swings but they were both occupied. Wiens sat on one, smoking a cigarette. Sherbini asked him in German if he would mind getting off. His immediate response was a torrent of insults.

A bystander called the police and Sherbini was persuaded to file a complaint.

Wiens refused to pay a fine and launched an appeal, which was heard on July 1 this year.

On that day of the killing, an armed security guard ran into the courtroom and, assuming Sherbini's husband was the attacker, shot him in the leg. By that time Sherbini was dead.

Egypt's Ambassador to Germany, Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy, welcomed the verdict. "I think that getting the maximum possible sentence says a lot ... it enables the family to feel that justice has been done."

- INDEPENDENT