Cairo - (AFP) - An Egyptian court ruled on Wednesday the death penalty for a young religious man who killed a female student in front of her university in the Nile Delta, north of Cairo, after she refused to marry him, a judicial official said.

"The Mansoura Criminal Court decided, unanimously, and after the approval of the Grand Mufti, to execute the murderer of the student, Naira Ashraf," the official told AFP.

Last week, the court referred the accused's papers to the Grand Mufti of Egypt to take an opinion on his execution.

The accused still has the opportunity to appeal the ruling before the Court of Cassation.

On Tuesday, some local media reported that the famous Egyptian lawyer, Farid El-Deeb, who took over the defense of former President Hosni Mubarak and his family, had taken over the defense of the accused.

Al-Deeb was quoted as saying on Tuesday by the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper, "I am waiting for the court's verdict tomorrow (Wednesday), and after that I will make my decision, whether to defend the accused before the Court of Cassation or not."

And the Egyptian Public Prosecutor, Hamada Al-Sawy, had referred the accused to the Criminal Court on charges of “deliberately and premeditatedly killing the victim student, Naira (Ashraf), and stabbing her several times with a knife, and slaughtering her with the intention of taking her life” in front of her university in Mansoura, Dakahlia Governorate.

The perpetrator admitted "to committing the crime of killing the victim," according to the Public Prosecutor's statement.

The case sparked controversy and anger among Egyptians on social media platforms, and the spread of the case was increased by the occurrence of a similar crime in Jordan against a student named Iman Rashid who was killed by a young man, which prompted many Jordanians and Egyptians to demand the death penalty for the accused in both countries.

According to the United Nations and the Egyptian Statistics Authority in 2015, about 8 million women were subjected to violence in Egypt by their husbands, relatives, or their entourage in public places.