Berlin/Dresden - The German and Egyptian governments are to keep in touch during the trial of Alex W, a German national charged with the July 1 murder of Egyptian Marwa al-Shirbini, 31, a senior aide to Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday.

Maria Boehmer, Germany's commissioner for minority affairs, made the announcement after a telephone conversation with the Egyptian ambassador to Germany, Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy, ahead of the court case due to start Monday.

Alex W, classed by police as xenophobic, attacked Shirbini during an appeal hearing against a fine he was ordered to pay for verbally abusing the woman at a city playground in August 2008.

Shirbini, who was pregnant with her second child, was in court with her husband and 3-year-old son when the defendant lunged at her with a knife he had smuggled into the building.

He stabbed her 18 times, shortly after she had finished giving evidence. Shirbini's husband, Elwi Ali Okaz, was also knifed by the assailant when he rushed to save his wife.

"The terrible deed shocked me and I felt affected by it," Boehmer said, adding, "It brought inconceivable suffering to the husband of Marwa al-Shirbini and the little son." The commissioner said she had kept in contact with the family.

The killing triggered protests in Shirbini's native Alexandria, where she was dubbed the "martyr of headscarf," and led to calls from Iran for Germany to be condemned by the United Nations.

Ahead of the trial, security has been ramped up at the Dresden court - the same building in which the attack took place. A police spokesman said there was "an abstract danger," but denied death threats had been made against Alex W. (dpa)