A court in Dresden, Germany will hold its first hearings into the Marwa el-Sherbini murder case on Monday. Sherbini, an Egyptian national, was killed in a German court earlier this year by a German man who had been accused of harassing her. The defendant, 28-year-old Alex Warner, faces charges of both manslaughter and the attempted murder of Sherbini's husband -- crimes for which he could receive a life sentence. Hearings are expected to last for three weeks. The Alexandria Pharmacists Syndicate has urged the court to apply the severest penalty possible in order to "prove that the Germans are a civilized people." The syndicate plans to hold a vigil on the day of the hearing to protest perceived European racism against Arabs and Muslims. Syndicate officials also requested that Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit tender his resignation for his slowness in handling the issue. The syndicate has hired a German law firm to prosecute the case, since German law stipulates that foreign lawyers cannot work in German courts without prior agreement between the respective justice ministries of both countries. The syndicate has dispatched two Egyptian lawyers to attend the hearing, in addition to French volunteer lawyer Francois Minaux. "Defending Sherbini, a victim of German religious extremism, means defending all Arab and Muslim women," said lawyer Hamdi Khalifa, before departing for Germany. "We're going there to portray the true image of Islam to the West." Translated from the Arabic Edition.
