Global Arab Network | Egyptian tycoon sentenced to death for murdering pop diva

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Egyptian tycoon sentenced to death for murdering pop diva

Global Arab Network - - Hannan Taha

Thursday, 21 May 2009 20:57

An Egyptian businessman has been sentenced to death by hanging for the murder of Suzanne Tamim, his former pop star lover. Hisham Talaat Moustafa, a politician and former chairman of the Talaat Moustafa Group, was found guilty of paying a security guard $2m to kill Tamim at her apartment in the emirate of Dubai in July.

Muhsen el-Sukkari, the security guard, was also convicted of murder and sentenced to death by hanging.

The judge ordered the men's sentences to be referred to Egypt's grand mufti for confirmation. The men have the right to appeal.

The indictment alleged that el-Sukkari stabbed Tamim to death after he tricked her into opening the door of her apartment by posing as a representative of the building's owners.

It accused Moustafa of taking part in the killing through "incitement, agreement and assistance".

Moustafa ordered el-Sukkari to kill Tamim after she married Riyad al-Azzawi, an Iraqi kick-boxing champion, the court heard.

“This verdict is cruel,” Samir al-Shishtawi, one of Mustafa’s lawyers, said, adding that the defence would appeal. “I want to assure Talaat Mustafa’s family that this verdict will be overturned by the appeals court.”

Abdel Sattar Tamim, the slain singer’s father, said the family was satisfied with the verdict and had “full faith” it would be upheld by the grand mufti’s final ruling, usually a formality.

Ms Tamim, from Beirut, rose to fame after appearing on, and winning a Lebanese television talent show in the mid-1990s, seen across the Arab world on satellite television.
Audiences celebrated Ms Tamin’s sultry beauty and the quality of her voice, which she turned to modern pop and classical Arabic music with equal aplomb.
But as her fame grew, so her private life became more and more complicated. After her second marriage - to her manager - collapsed, she fled to Cairo and faded into almost total obscurity - until her murder propelled her back into the limelight.

Tamim had had a relationship with Moustafa over a three-year period that ended several months before her death, Egyptian media had reported.

Amr el-Kakhy, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Cairo, said that the verdict had come after unprecedented public interest in the trial.

"I think this is the biggest case in Egypt in this new millennium, [in terms of] the level of media coverage and public interest into the case, which led the court to put a gag order on publishing what went on throughout the court hearing," he reported.

The evidence against Moustafa and el-Sukkari included recordings of telephone calls between the two men, as well as footage from security cameras at the Dubai apartment building.

A DNA-link was found on the blood-stained clothes that el-Sukkari was accused of leaving near the scene of the crime. (AP, Times Online,New York Times, Al Jazeera )

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