An Egyptian man told a German court yesterday how his pregnant wife was murdered before his eyes in a frenzied anti-Islamic attack, in a case that has inflamed tempers in the Muslim world.
On the first day of the trial of Russian-born German defendant Alex Wiens in the eastern city of Dresden amid tight security, the victim's husband Elwy Okaz gave wrenching testimony in the same courthouse where his wife was killed.
Some 200 police officers were on hand after reported internet death threats against the accused, who appeared in court behind bulletproof glass.
Mr Okaz said Mr Wiens plunged an 18-centimetre kitchen knife repeatedly into the veiled Marwa al-Sherbini, 31, who was three months pregnant at the time with their second child.
When Mr Okaz tried to come to his wife's aid, he too was stabbed several times.
Ms Sherbini had just testified against Mr Wiens at a defamation trial for calling her a "terrorist", an "Islamist" and a "whore" in a playground dispute. She bled to death at the scene in front of her son Mustafa, then three and a half.
Describing the events of July 1, Mr Okaz said neither he nor his wife had any sense they were in danger.
"The perpetrator suddenly attacked my wife - he hit her several times and when I tried to help he hit me too. It was only then that I noticed he had a knife and that he had stabbed her," Mr Okaz, a 32-year-old geneticist, told the hushed courtroom. "Then he began stabbing me too."
Prosecutor Frank Heinrich said the attack was driven by racism.
"He stabbed them out of pure hatred of non-Europeans and Muslims. He wanted to annihilate them," he told the court, where many, including Mr Okaz, were wearing pins with a picture of Ms Sherbini's beaming face. Mr Wiens, 28, followed the testimony with his head in his hands and covered by a hood, his eyes hidden behind sunglasses despite a €50-fine imposed by presiding judge Birgit Wiegand when he refused to remove them. He declined to address the court.
The attack, and a slow reaction by the German media and political class, sparked accusations of neglectful handling of hate crimes against Muslims.