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German courtroom killer gets life | German courtroom killer gets life |
(10 minutes later) | |
A man has been sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of murdering a pregnant Egyptian woman in a German courtroom. | A man has been sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of murdering a pregnant Egyptian woman in a German courtroom. |
The Dresden state court also ruled that Alexander Wiens would not be eligible for early release. | The Dresden state court also ruled that Alexander Wiens would not be eligible for early release. |
Wiens, a 28-year-old Russian-born German, admitted stabbing Marwa Sherbini to death at a court hearing involving them both in July. | |
The crime sparked outrage across the Muslim world. | The crime sparked outrage across the Muslim world. |
Prosecutors say Wiens - an unemployed Russian-born German national - was motivated by a "hatred of non-Europeans and Muslims". | |
'Martyr of the Hijab' | |
The case began with an argument in a playground in 2008. | |
Ms Sherbini, a pharmacist, is said to have asked Wiens to let her child use a playground swing he was sitting on. He refused and instead called her abusive names. | |
She later took the defendant to court and he was fined 780 euros ($1,170; £718) for defamation. | |
But when he returned to the courtroom for the appeal on 1 July this year, prosecutors say he smuggled in an 18cm (7in) kitchen knife and stabbed Ms Sherbini at least 16 times with it. | |
The 31-year-old, who was three months pregnant with her second child, bled to death in full view of her husband and their three-year-old son. | |
Many Muslim leaders accused Germany of Islamophobia following the killing. | |
They said the country, which has the second-biggest Muslim population in Western Europe, had been too slow to condemn it. | |
Ms Sherbini, who wore a headscarf, was dubbed "the martyr of the hijab". | |
Thousands attended her funeral in Egypt, some chanting "Death to Germany", and there were also mass protests in Iran. |