Dresden - A German prosecutor demanded Monday that judges sentence a self-avowed racist to life in prison for stabbing a pregnant Egyptian pharmacist to death in a courtroom earlier this year. In his summation, senior prosecutor Frank Heinrich said Alex W, aged 28, had cold-bloodedly planned in advance to kill Marwa al- Shirbini "out of sheer hatred for non-Europeans and Muslims."
"His guilt is especially great," the prosecutor told the court, which is scheduled to hand down its verdict this week.
"In the sight on her 3-year-old son, he butchered this mother as if he were a hired assassin," said Heinrich, who said that the attempt to kill her husband, who tried to rescue her, was also intentional. The husband was gravely wounded, but survived.
Germany has no death penalty, but the prosecutor said W should receive the highest penalty, life in jail, which is reserved for attacks of a heinous nature and those on unsuspecting victims. Heinrich said both features applied in this case, so parole should not be allowed after 15 years.
W, a self-admitted racist, who was born and raised in Russia, stabbed al-Shirbini and her husband during a court appearance on July 1 in the eastern German city of Dresden. She had just testified about racist slurs he had uttered against her in 2008 at a playground.
