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29 March 2024

Sentence of tycoon for diva's murder confirmed

Published
By AFP

A 15-year jail sentence handed down in 2010 to Egyptian tycoon Hisham Talaat Moustafa for the murder of a Lebanese pop singer has been confirmed by a Cairo court, Mena news agency reported on Tuesday.

The court on Monday also confirmed a 25-year sentence given to Mohsen Al Sukkari, who was found guilty of murdering singer Suzanne Tamim, Moustafa's former lover, in July 2008 at her Dubai apartment.

Moustafa was accused of having paid Sukkari, a former policeman, $2 million (1.5 million euros) to cut Tamim's throat.

On Monday, lawyers unsuccessfully pleaded the innocence of the two men, claiming that "more than one person wanted to kill Suzanne Tamim" and that the prosecutors had presented only "circumstantial evidence" in the trial.

In May 2009, Moustafa, an associate of ousted president Hosni Mubarak's son Gamal who also sat on the policies committee of the former ruling National Democratic Party, was sentenced to death.

A year later an appeals court overturned the conviction on procedural grounds and ordered a retrial. In September 2010, Moustafa was sentenced to 15 years in jail.

But in November that year the prosecution complained the sentence was "too lenient" and demanded Moustafa be tried again.