Medeshi Sept. 5 , 2008 Pop Star Murder: Egypt MP Charged
An Egyptian billionaire has been charged with hiring a hitman to kill the winner of Lebanon's equivalent of Pop Idol, in a case that has rocked the Arab world.
An Egyptian billionaire has been charged with hiring a hitman to kill the winner of Lebanon's equivalent of Pop Idol, in a case that has rocked the Arab world.
(Photo: Suzanne Tamim)
Suzanne Tamim enjoyed a meteoric rise to pop fame after winning the reality show in Lebanon.
But on July 28 the star's body was found with her throat slit in her luxury apartment block in Dubai.
The man accused of ordering her death is one of Egypt's most prominent and most successful tycoons, Heshaam Talaat Moustafa.
The alleged killer was a former police officer who stalked Tamim from London to Dubai before killing her, say authorities.
They claim the hitman entered the singer's apartment pretending to bring a letter from her landlord. "He then laid into her with the knife," read the official indictment, "cutting her main arteries and her trachea".
Moustafa is charged with paying the alleged killer two million dollars to carry out the killing.
The Egyptian is an MP with the ruling National Democratic Party, led by President Hosni Mubarak - but that is not helping him now. The upper house of the parliament has stripped him of his legal immunity as a lawmaker
The indictment says little about a possible motive, mentioning only that the killing was an act of revenge.
Arab papers have speculated that the singer had been romantically involved with Moustafa, a married father-of-three.
Lebanese pop music is enormously popular across the Arab world. Tamim had been one of its biggest stars.
The story is causing a sensation in the region, but in Egypt was subject to a reporting ban last month, only lifted in time to reveal the identity of the pair allegedly behind Tamim's killing.
Suzanne Tamim enjoyed a meteoric rise to pop fame after winning the reality show in Lebanon.
But on July 28 the star's body was found with her throat slit in her luxury apartment block in Dubai.
The man accused of ordering her death is one of Egypt's most prominent and most successful tycoons, Heshaam Talaat Moustafa.
The alleged killer was a former police officer who stalked Tamim from London to Dubai before killing her, say authorities.
They claim the hitman entered the singer's apartment pretending to bring a letter from her landlord. "He then laid into her with the knife," read the official indictment, "cutting her main arteries and her trachea".
Moustafa is charged with paying the alleged killer two million dollars to carry out the killing.
The Egyptian is an MP with the ruling National Democratic Party, led by President Hosni Mubarak - but that is not helping him now. The upper house of the parliament has stripped him of his legal immunity as a lawmaker
The indictment says little about a possible motive, mentioning only that the killing was an act of revenge.
Arab papers have speculated that the singer had been romantically involved with Moustafa, a married father-of-three.
Lebanese pop music is enormously popular across the Arab world. Tamim had been one of its biggest stars.
The story is causing a sensation in the region, but in Egypt was subject to a reporting ban last month, only lifted in time to reveal the identity of the pair allegedly behind Tamim's killing.
