Tycoon convicted over ex-lover's murder

A property tycoon with ties to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s son was sentenced to death today for ordering the killing of a Lebanese pop star who had been his lover.

Hisham Talaat Moustafa, a member of the ruling National Democratic Party, was accused of paying a former Egyptian State Security officer $2m (€1.43m) to kill Suzanne Tamim in Dubai.

The green-eyed diva, who was 30 at the time of her death last July, rose to stardom in the late 1990s drawing huge audiences with her sultry dancing and cascading chestnut hair.

But she hit troubled times, separating from her Lebanese husband-manager who filed a series of lawsuits against her.

Moustafa, who is married, and Tamim, were lovers before the relationship soured. The case – a sensational tale of a jilted lover out for revenge after spending millions of dollars on his mistress – in the eyes of many Egyptians served as a litmus test for the notion that the country’s elite are above the law. It attracted a media frenzy.

The former officer, Mohsen el-Sukkary, was also convicted and sentenced to death in a court session that quickly turned chaotic as police and Moustafa’s relatives clashed with reporters trying for a reaction from the defendants to the verdict.

Moustafa’s two daughters burst into tears after the verdict, and his sister fainted.

“This verdict is cruel,” Sameer el-Shishtawi, one of Moustafa’s lawyers said the southern Cairo court.

He said he would appeal, and was confident the verdict would be overturned.

In Tamim’s Aisha Bakkar middle-class Muslim district of Beirut, a picture of the dead singer still hangs above the door of the family’s ground floor residence.

Najib Liyan, the family’s lawyer, said he was “grateful for the verdict.”

Both Mousatafa and el-Sukkary had pleaded not guilty to the charges. The death sentence must still be agreed by the government’s top religious official, the Grand Mufti. The defendants can appeal within 60 days of the mufti’s decision effectively after June 25, a date set by the judge.

Tamim’s murder, and leaked images of her lying dead, her throat slashed, dominated headlines across the Middle East.

Everything about the case was high-profile and, as common in the Middle East, political overtones crept into what would have otherwise been a common, albeit particularly grisly, crime.

Authorities maintain Moustafa paid el-Sukkary, who worked for the tycoon at one of the Four Seasons hotels he owned in Egypt, to kill Tamim while she was staying in a luxury apartment in Dubai.

Egypt declined to extradite Moustafa to the United Arab Emirates, insisting he be tried at home in a move initially read by many Egyptians as opening the door for him to get off lightly with a symbolic sentence.

But as details of the crime emerged increasing media frenzy prompted the judge to impose a gagging order and to close most of the 27 trial sessions to the public. Fuelling the excitement were Moustafa’s ties to Gamal Mubarak, who is often touted as his father’s successor. Moustafa, a member of parliament’s upper house, the Shura Council, was also a member the NDP’s influential policies committee, which the younger Mubarak chairs.