By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
CAIRO, Egypt – An Egyptian tycoon sentenced to death last year for killing a popular Lebanese singer has appeared in court in Cairo for a retrial.
Hisham Talaat Moustafa, a senior member of the ruling party in Egypt, and co-defendant Mohsen al-Sukkari were granted a retrial on a technicality. They were convicted of the killing of Suzanne Tamim in Dubai in 2008.The case has received much attention, as it involves a member of an elite often seen as being above the law.
Moustafa 50, was sentenced to death last May on charges of hiring Mohsen el Sukkary, 41, and paying him $2 million to kill 30-year-old Lebanese diva Suzanne Tamim in the United Arab Emirates.
Tamim rose to stardom in the 1990s after she won the Arab World’s equivalent of “American Idol.” She moved to Cairo and became involved with Moustafa in a love affair, which turned sour after Tamim fled to London and then to the glitzy Persian Gulf city-state of Dubai in the UAE, and found another lover. Dubai police found her in her apartment with her throat slit in July 2008.
“I swear to God I didn’t kill her,” el Sukkary shouted Monday in a courtroom packed with journalists, lawyers and family members of the defendants. Moustafa also denied the charges. “My son has been unjustly sitting behind bars for the past two years. But I am optimistic about the retrial,” el Sukkary’s father, Munir, said outside the court.
Many Egyptians were bitter about the decision to retry the case, taking it as a sign that Moustafa will walk away unscathed as a member of the elite in a country where cronyism is widespread and many people think rules are often bent for the rich and powerful. Those who thought the integrity of the Egyptian judicial system had been rescued felt let down by the retrial.
There’s a growing gap between Egypt’s rich and poor, and the country has been riveted in recent months by protests demanding higher wages. Legal experts, however, said that popular anger toward an unpopular regime shouldn’t reflect on the trial.
“I read the ruling that granted the new trial, and found it correct and very precise,” said Yehia al Gamal, a human rights advocate and law professor at Cairo University. “However, the image of the regime in people’s minds is a distorted and rotten one. This is why there is a deep distrust,” Gamal added.
If found guilty in this trial, the two defendants will be allowed to appeal the ruling and could face a third trial, Judge Ahmed Mekky told the Reuters news agency.
For more information, please see:
BBC – Egypt Tycoon Tried Again For Murder Of Suzanne Tamim – 26 April 2010
World AP – Egypt Retries Real Estate Tycoon In Lebanese Pop Star’s Killing – 26 April 2010
News 24 – Egypt Tycoon Retrial Begins – 26 April 2010
AJC – Retrial Begins For Egyptian Accused In Diva Murder – 26 April 2010
