Egyptian Billionaire Mustafa Sentenced To Death Over Singer Murder

23 May 2009

CAIRO: The case of the Egyptian mogul and the Lebanese singer he was accused of murdering reached its climactic ending yesterday. In a case that had captivated Egypt and much of the rest of the Arab world, a court in Cairo found Hisham Talaat Mustafa guilty of the brutal slaying of pop star Suzanne Tamim. It said Mohsen El-Sukkari, a former Egyptian police officer and the man who slit Tamim’s throat after having been hired by Mustafa in a contract killing, was also guilty. Both were given the death sentence.

In flowing robes, the presiding judge, flanked by his two aides — there is no jury system in Egypt — read out a terse statement announcing the verdict. He had to shout it out, so crowded and so vociferous were those in attendance.

Egypt’s grand mufti now has the final say over whether the two should be executed. This is normal procedure in Egypt involving executions. The mufti has the authority to revoke the sentence but this is perceived as unlikely. He is expected to make a ruling on June 25.

Mustafa’s lawyer says he will appeal and is certain his client can come out innocent.

The two defendants, wearing all-white loosely fitting clothes, were in separate caged docks as they heard the verdict. El-Sukkari, who headed security at one of Mustafa’s hotels, had been reading from the Qur’an prior to the announcement.

Although the ruling was announced at 9 a.m. the Cairo courthouse had been ringed by hundreds of police in riot gear since dawn. Chaos erupted in the packed courtroom after the judge read the verdict. The accused’s family members wept, and some of Mustafa’s entourage grappled with reporters who rushed to the cages in search of reaction. Mustafa’s wife fainted.

Mustafa sat stone-faced after the verdict, saying nothing. His two daughters burst into tears and his sister passed out.

At the height of the pandemonium, policemen ordered everyone to leave the courtroom immediately.

“I thought for sure El-Sukkari would be found guilty because of all the evidence against him, but Mustafa would somehow go scot-free because of his political influence and wealth,” said Dina Mustafa, a housewife in the residential area of Agouza.

“I think the court’s verdict today is a victory for the masses in Egypt who had stopped believing in our justice system.”

Dina Mustafa was referring mainly to the El-Salam Egyptian ferry boat which sank in 2006, killing more than 1,000 people. In March this year, after an initial acquittal was overturned, the ship’s owner Mamdouh Ismail was sentenced to seven years in prison, too light a penalty, Egyptians said, for one of the worst maritime disasters in history.

A media ban was slapped on the Mustafa trial soon after it began. The Egyptian public missed close to 30 sessions after the judge feared televised hearings would jeopardize the fairness of the proceedings.

Mona Gad, a Cairo University journalism student, said the blackout had made the public less interested in the case.

“At the beginning, when they showed the court proceedings live, so many of us thought we were going to be treated to something like the OJ Simpson trial, and it would be that way for months. But after they stopped televising it live, and nothing was published in the press, I and many like me slowly lost interest.” But the case, with a soap opera mix of power, wealth and murder, was simply too sensational to be forgotten.

Tamim, 30, was murdered July 28 in an exclusive residential compound in Dubai.

El-Sukkari had said Mustafa paid him $2 million for the contract killing after Mustafa fell out with the singer.

The prosecution had said El-Sukkari bought a knife, then headed to Tamim’s apartment at the Jumeira Beach Residence complex.

Disguised as a worker belonging to the apartment’s service company he showed Tamim a false ID over the video intercom and she let him in. Once inside her apartment, he knocked her to the ground and slashed her throat.

From the beginning, the evidence pointing to El-Sukkari was overwhelming. He had been caught on camera leaving the murder scene and clothes found at Tamim’s apartment carried his DNA.

The Dubai investigators had discovered a shoe print at the murder scene belonging to El-Sukkari. He had also thrown his bloodstained clothes in a garbage bin next to Tamim’s apartment.

The $2 million that Mustafa gave El-Sukkari for the contract killing was found in El-Sukarri’s home, specifically in an oven.

Mustafa, on the other hand, is so wealthy and powerful that many believed he could literally get away with murder.

A billionaire property developer and a member of the Shura Council (the upper house of the Egyptian Parliament), Mustafa also sat on the ruling National Democratic Party’s policy committee.

Despite his immense political influence, Mustafa was arrested Sept. 2 last year. The trial opened Oct. 18. His parliamentary immunity was lifted following his arrest.

The most damning evidence was the recorded telephone conversations between the hit man and the politician who had paid him.

According to the transcripts printed in the Egyptian press, Mustafa had suggested Tamim’s killing be made to look like an accident, like a fall from a balcony or running her over by a car.

Though most press reports say Mustafa and Tamim, 30, were involved in a three-year relationship, it has been suggested they were married.

According to rumors, they were married in London which would make Tamim eligible for half of Mustafa’s massive fortune should they have divorced. Tamim, it is believed, was seeking divorce from Mustafa, 49, a father of three.

Nabil El-Sayed, a druggist in downtown Cairo, was impressed by the relatively short time it took between the murder and the conviction — 10 months.

“I have a two-room apartment that was stolen by a con man. That was 22 years ago and the case is still in the courts,” El-Sayed said.

Execution in Egypt is by hanging. It is conducted in prison.

Egyptian expatriates in Jeddah welcomed the capital sentence handed to Mustafa.

Al-Aesouvi Mahmoud, an Egyptian employee in a car rental establishment in Jeddah, said the verdict is another feather on the fairness of the Egyptian justice system.

“The fact that a powerful man such as Moustafa could be sentenced to death proves that no one is above the law in our country,” said Mahmoud.

“This is also a warning to all corrupt and criminally minded people.”

Accountant Adil Ezzeddine said the verdict is a warning to all unscrupulous businessmen and politicians to be on the watch out.

Gamal Wali Eddine, an Egyptian working in a construction company in the Kingdom, said his dreams of owning a house would be dashed with the sentence of the businessman because he had subscribed to a housing scheme under a project of the Talaat Mustafa Group and had been waiting for its completion for the past three years.

EsinIslam.Com