"Hijab Martyr" Murderer Gets Life Sentence

Sherbini was stabbed to death inside the courtroom.

"He killed Marwa not of dread or fear but out of revenge," Supreme Judge Birgit Wiegand was quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"He deliberately profited from her innocence and her defenselessness."

On July 1, in the same courthouse, Alexander Wiens plunged an 18-centimetre kitchen knife at least 18 times into Sherbini, 32.

The Muslim mother, who was three-months pregnant with her second child, was testifying against him for insulting her hijab.

Her son, three-year-old Mustafa, watched her bleed to death at the scene.

Sherbini's husband, geneticist Elwy Okaz, rushed to her aid but was stabbed repeatedly and then shot in the leg by a guard who allegedly mistook him for the attacker.

The court found Wiens guilty of murdering Sherbini, since dubbed the "hijab martyr," and attempted murder against her husband.

Judge Wiegand said the 28-year-old murderer would not be eligible for early release.

On crutches, unsure if he will ever walk again, Okaz gave wrenching testimony during the just over two-week-long trial.

He told the court how Mustafa, who now lives with family in Egypt, misses his mother.

Prosecutors said Wiens, whose face was covered by a hood and his eyes hidden behind dark glasses, was motivated by a "hatred of non-Europeans and Muslims".

Wiens has admitted holding anti-Islamic and xenophobic attitudes.

On crutches, unsure if he will ever walk again, Okaz told the court his three-year-old son Mustafa misses his slain mother. (Reuters)

Welcomed

Egyptian Ambassador Ramzy Ezzeldin welcomed the verdict.

"The judgment says it all. The right sentence was delivered today and justice has been honored," he told AFP.

"Getting the maximum possible sentence, I think that itself says a lot. I think that should satisfy the family and the people."

The gruesome murder and a slow reaction from Germany's politicians and media sparked Muslim protests from Cairo to Tehran.

Outside the courtroom, around 200 people, most of them Muslims, staged a demonstration.

They urged the government to do more to counter racism.

"History, which we Germans should have learned better than anyone, has shown us where propaganda aimed against religious minorities can lead," said Muhamed Ciftci, a spokesman for the organizers.

There are more than 4 million Muslims in Germany, including 220,000 in Berlin, thought to be the second-largest Muslim minority in western Europe after France.

Islam comes third in Germany after Protestant and Catholic Christianity.