LIFE SENTENCE IN “VEIL MARTYR” CASE

A 28-year-old German man of Russian descent was jailed for life for the murder of an Egyptian woman in a Dresden courtroom last July, after stabbing her 16 times with a kitchen knife. The defendant, Alex W., who has been living in Germany since 2003, also seriously injured the woman’s husband, stabbing him at least 15 times with the same knife as he tried to protect his pregnant wife.  Because of the severity of the crime and his self-confessed xenophobism, the Dresden state court ruled that Alex W. would have no chance of parole. The incident attracted widespread attention inside and outside Germany, but especially in the Arab world. The murder occurred in the same Dresden courtroom where Alex W. had earlier appeared in a defamation case brought against him by the Egyptian woman, Marwa el-Sherbini for calling her an “Islamist”, “terrorist” and a “slut” because she wore a headscarf.