CAIRO: Egypt will send a state prosecutor to Germany to help with investigations into the fatal stabbing inside a Dresden courtroom of a pregnant Egyptian woman, the prosecutor general said on Wednesday.
The prosecutor from the [northern city of] Alexandria will head to [the German state of] Saxony to help with the investigations into the death of Marwa Al-Sherbini, Abdel Meguid Mahmoud said in a statement.
Sherbini, 32, was stabbed to death in a court in the northern German city of Dresden last week shortly before she was to give evidence in an appeal lodged by her attacker.
The 28-year-old man, identified only as Axel W. from Russia, had been convicted and fined after calling her a terrorist for wearing the Islamic headscarf.
Thousands of angry mourners attended the funeral of Sherbini – who was three months pregnant at the time of her death – in her hometown of Alexandria.
The attack sent shockwaves throughout Egypt where the top cleric declared her a martyr and called for the maximum penalty for the attacker.
Small demonstrations were held outside the German embassy in Cairo this week, accusing the West of Islamophobia. More protests are planned in coming days.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is to talk to Egypt s President Hosni Mubarak about the fatal stabbing when African leaders join G8 heads in the Italian city of L Aquila on Friday, her spokesman said Wednesday.
Sherbini s husband, Elwi Ali Okaz, a researcher in genetic engineering, was reportedly shot by German police while trying to save his wife and is still in critical condition in hospital. -AFP
