DRESDEN - The man who stabbed pregnant Egyptian pharmacist Marwa el-Shirbini to death in a German courtroom last year has lost his final regular appeal, a German court official said late Thursday. Russian-born Alex Wiens was given life imprisonment last year for the July 1 killing, which caused outrage in Egypt. The fact that el- Shirbini, a qualified pharmacist who already had a young son, wore a head-scarf led to her being described as a "scarf martyr." Egyptians also criticised the German government for taking a week before issuing an official statement condemning the murder. The president of the state court in Dresden, Gerd Halfar, said Germany's high court had rejected a Wiens appeal, meaning the sentence was final. However a lawyer for Wiens, Michael Sturm, told the German Press Agency dpa he was studying whether to mount an appeal to Germany's constitutional court or to the European Court of Human Rights. The mother, 31, had been giving evidence in the Dresden criminal court that Wiens, then 29, had used anti-Muslim slurs against her on a city playground. Accused Wiens suddenly stood up and stabbed her in a frenzy.
