A German court rules that the killer of Marwa El-Sherbini has no right to appeal, reports Doaa El-Bey Justice was re-served this week when Germany's highest court ruled that the man who stabbed to death the Egyptian woman Marwa El-Sherbini could not appeal his murder conviction. Germany's Supreme Court said in a statement released early this week that it declined an appeal by Russian-born German, Alexander Wiens, describing it as without grounds. After the appeal was turned down Wiens' lawyer said he would take the case to the German constitutional court and the European Human Rights Court. A senior diplomat in the Egyptian Embassy in Berlin who spoke on condition of anonymity said the ruling was expected because the case was clear and the evidence decisive. "It sent a clear message against racism and that racists will be severely punished," the diplomat told Al-Ahram Weekly. Wiens is serving a life sentence for the 1 July 2009 slaying of El-Sherbini in a Dresden courtroom. El-Sherbini, a 31-year-old pharmacist residing in Germany and who was pregnant at the time, was stabbed 18 times in front of her husband and three-year-old son in the courtroom. Her husband was also stabbed by Wiens, then shot by German police when he went to the aid of his wife. The police confused the husband with the attacker. El-Sherbini had been giving evidence at the time against Wiens, a Russian of German descent who immigrated to Germany in 2003. He had been found guilty of subjecting El-Sherbini to racial abuse in November 2008 and fined. He appealed the verdict, which is why El-Sherbini and Wiens were in court together. The attack on El-Sherbini triggered outrage in the Muslim world which regarded it as a symbol of racism, Islamophobia and xenophobia. The initial brief coverage of the incident in the German media aroused further outrage in the Arab and Muslim world. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for international condemnation of the killing. The incident also shed light on the poor security measures in German courts that allowed Wiens to enter the courtroom with a knife. A criminal investigation against the officer who shot El-Sherbini's husband, the judge who presided over the July trial, and the president of the regional court were launched. However, the public prosecutor's office in Dresden announced that all the investigations had ended in December 2009 without indictment after suspicion of a criminal offence could not be substantiated against any of them. The shooting of El-Sherbini's husband was described as a mistake. In a related development, German authorities in Saxony have decided to place a commemorative placard at the entrance of the Dresden court where El-Sherbini was stabbed to death. The placard will be put up on 1 July in a small ceremony commemorating the first anniversary of her death. "The placard, on which her name will be written in Arabic and German, will state that she is a victim of racism and extremism," the Egyptian Embassy diplomat said. Members from the Egyptian Embassy in Berlin will attend the ceremony.
