CAIRO - Egypt has postponed concerts by an orchestra from Dresden, Germany after demands from the family of an Egyptian woman murdered in a courtroom there in an anti-Islamic attack, the culture minister said on Wednesday.
The Sachsische Staatskapelle Dresden was to have played a series of concerts in Cairo and Alexandria at the end of October.
The decision "to postpone comes after the killing of Marwa al-Sherbini inside a courtroom in the city of Dresden at the hands of a German extremist and the objection by Sherbini's family," Culture Minister Faruq Hosni said.
The minister did not say if and when the concerts might be rescheduled.
The ministry "sent a letter last week asking the orchestra to cancel the concert fearing clashes as a result of the anger on the streets over the crime," a ministry source said.
Marwa al-Sherbini was stabbed 16 times in the chest and back by Russian-born German Axel Wiens in July.
Her killing sparked widespread outrage in Egypt and across the Muslim world.
The prosecutors said Wiens, now on trial for the killing, was motivated by "a pure hatred of non-Europeans and Muslims."
Egypt has hired a team of senior German lawyers to seek a life sentence for Wiens.
Egyptians protest at Algeria's Cairo embassy