Egypt tycoon gets death for singer's slaying

[May 21, 2009]  CAIRO (AP) -- A real estate mogul with ties to Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak's son was sentenced to death Thursday for ordering the slaying of a Lebanese pop star in a case that sparked a media frenzy in a country where the elite is often perceived as being above the law.

Hisham Talaat Moustafa, a member of the ruling National Democratic Party, was accused of paying a former Egyptian police officer $2 million to kill Suzanne Tamim while she was in Dubai.

Moustafa, who is married, and Tamim, who was 30 at the time of her death last July, were lovers before the relationship soured.

The former officer, Mohsen el-Sukkary, was also convicted and sentenced to death in a court session that quickly turned chaotic with police and Moustafa's relatives clashing with reporters scrambling 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 told reporters outside the southern Cairo court. He said he would appeal and was confident the verdict would be overturned.

Both men had pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Tamim's murder, and leaked images of her lying dead, her throat slashed, were the stuff of tabloid headlines across the Middle East -- the story of a jilted lover who hired a thug to murder a beautiful diva.

Media frenzy prompted the judge impose a gag order and to close most of the 27 trial sessions to the public. Fueling the excitement were Moustafa's ties to Gamal Mubarak, who is often touted as his father's successor. Moustafa was a member the party's influential policies committee, which the younger Mubarak chairs.

Authorities maintain Moustafa paid el-Sukkary, a former State Security officer 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. Her friends have said she moved to London then Dubai after ending the relationship with Moustafa.

At the trial, authorities pointed to security footage of El-Sukkary in Dubai, blood-soaked clothes that were found dumped outside the building and the knife he used to slash Tamim's throat as evidence.

In Tamim's Aisha Bakkar middle-class Muslim district of Beirut, a picture of the slain singer hung above the door of the family's ground floor residence.

Najib Liyan, who identified himself as the family's lawyer, told APTN he was "grateful for the verdict."

"We had no doubt about justice," Liyan said. Still, he added, "no one can be happy about death, whether it is a crime or a death sentence."

Moustafa's trial marked the demise of one of the country's most prominent businessmen.

Over the past decade, he became one of Egypt's wealthiest men, building a real estate empire that included luxury hotels and resorts. He was also a leading force behind the rise of the pricey Western-style suburbs that ring Cairo.

Shares of Talaat Moustafa Group were down about 14.5 percent on the Egyptian stock exchange, trading at 4.22 Egyptian pounds by midday.

Tamim rose to stardom in the late 1990s but then hit troubled times, separating from her Lebanese husband-manager who filed a series of lawsuits against her.

[Associated Press; By MAGGIE MICHAEL]

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