CAIRO: “When he killed her, Alex knew that Marwa was pregnant, Al-Sherbini’s lawyer, Khaled Abu Bakr told Daily News Egypt in a phone interview from Germany.
“He saw her at the doctor’s clinic a while before the accident, where he overheard her telling a friend that she was expecting a baby.
When he overheard the news, Marwa’s killed allegedly said “our worries have just doubled.
Abu Bakr was appointed by the Egyptian Lawyers’ Syndicate and Marwa Al-Sherbini’s family.
Abu Bakr is also receiving help from Egyptian officials. Fathi Sorour, speaker of the People’s Assembly, has reportedly sent the lawyer a 10-page document concerning German law.
According to the local press, Sorour added comments to the document that will assist Abu Bakr in the case.
In Dresden, Germany, the attorney general instated a publishing ban on the details of the case.
Tarek Al-Sherbini, the victim’s brother, however, believes there is something that the German authorities are trying to hide. “The German authorities are really keeping us in the dark, he told the Daily News Egypt in a telephone interview. “We still don’t know many things about Alex. We haven’t seen a picture, and we don’t know much about his religion or his identity.
Abu Bakr, however, says the German police have been cooperative, except when it comes to investigating the actions of the courtroom guard who accidentally shot her husband.
Eighteen stabs left Marwa dead on the floor of the Dresden courtroom and her husband Elwi Ali Okaz stabbed in a vain attempt to save her. During the chaos, the security guard shot Marwa’s husband in the leg.
“What is missing here is a homicide investigation of the courtroom police guard, said Abu Bakr. “I have a million questions I want answers to: why did he not shoot in the air first? Why didn’t follow emergency protocol?
Abu Bakr demands that the guard be held responsible for his actions, and that the German authorities do not overlook this mistake, for which he sees no reason other than racism.
“The guard came into the courtroom and saw a blonde and a dark-skinned man, and faced with a decision of who to shoot, he opted for the dark one, Abu Bakr theorized.
According to the Associated Press (AP) the top German official for immigration affairs, Maria Boehmer, offered her sympathies to Al-Sherbini s husband at the Dresden hospital where he is now recovering.
There is no place in Germany for racially or religiously motivated violence, Boehmer said after the visit.
AP also reported that German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her condolences to President Hosni Mubarak in Italy last Thursday when they met at the G8 summit. She had not, however, publicly condemned the slaying.
German officials said Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier sent a letter to Ahmed Aboul Gheit, his Egyptian counterpart, expressing deep shock regarding the murder. He assured that Germany will take every measure possible to avoid future incidents of this sort.
“We are committed to everyone in Germany feeling safe, regardless of origin, nationality or faith, wrote Steinmeier.
Emotions ran high on Saturday at the memorial service held for Marwa outside Dresden city hall. Egyptian flags were waved and tears ran down mourner’s faces. A woman held up a placard reading “My hijab is not a sin, and another one read “Racism kills.
Media reports held that the public memorial was organized by local civil rights groups, and drew more than 1,000 people. The German Social Democrats Party (SPD) leader Franz Muentefering and Egyptian ambassador to Germany Elsayed Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy both attended the service.
In Iran, the German embassy was sprayed with graffiti and pelted with eggs by 150 Islamist students protesting Marwa’s murder.
Marwa was murdered by a German of Russian decent, identified only as Alex, W. The assailant fatally stabbed her 18 times in a Dresden courtroom in front of her husband and three-year-old son Mostafa.
He had called her a “terrorist and “Islamist in a playground in August 2008 when she asked to use the swing for her son.
