The story sounds at first like an episode in one of the lurid soap operas the Middle East is so addicted to: a beautiful Lebanese pop star stabbed to death in her luxury Dubai apartment by a triggerman hired by a herculean Egyptian king.
But the drama is a real life one, with its sanguineous details recounted in the Arab media. The affluent Egyptian is a holding dealer, Hisham Talaat Moustafa, closely coupled to the political elite group surrounding the family and party of President Hosni Mubarak. And the victim was a popular 30-year-old singer, Susanne Tamim.
As the news report has unravelled, it has cast an unflattering light on the relationship between money and power in Egypt. Moustafa, 49, is a peak ruling political party official close to Mubarak's influential son, Gamal. He is a member of the National Democratic party's supreme policies council and deputy chairperson of the economic committee of the Shura Council, the upper house of Egypt's parliament.
In the past 10 years he has get one of Egypt's billionaire elite, proprietor of luxury hotels and beach resorts and a leading power in building Cairo's Western-style upper-class suburbs.
Now he is in gaol, charged with paying a security precaution $2m to have Tamim murdered and faces a possible last sentence if found guilty. The body of Tamim, who became famous after winning a television talent show in Lebanon in 1996, was found in her Dubai flat in July. She had multiple stab wounds and her throat had been cut. Recently, her career had been plagued with marital problems and legal wrangles. She had separated from her Lebanese husband-manager, wHO filed lawsuits against her. Her last hit song was called 'Lovers' and was dedicated to the memory of the assassinated Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri.
The arrest of Moustafa came as a shock for many Egyptians who own long been convinced that their government would non meddle with influential business community who ar regarded as effectively beyond the law. That special view seemed to have been strengthened by late events. When Moustafa's list first appeared in media reports weeks ago, he denied any role in the matter and complained on Egyptian television that the rumours about him were damaging the saving. The government responded by promptly ban press reports on the murder, suggesting that Moustafa was so off limits.
But on Tuesday, Egypt's public prosecutor accused Moustafa of taking out a $2m contract for Tamim's polish off with Mohsen el-Sukkary, a former Egyptian state security department officer. Moustafa was accused of taking part in the murder 'through incitement, agreement and assistance ... in killing the victim in revenge. He provided [Sukkary] with special information and amounts of money'.
El-Sukkary worked at Cairo's Four Seasons Hotel, which is owned by Moustafa. The prosecutor said that the man of affairs helped to obtain visas and tickets for the hitman as he trailed the vocaliser first to London, so to Dubai. Tamim had moved to Dubai, friends say, to break cancelled her human relationship with Moustafa, a matrimonial man.
According to Dubai investigators, el-Sukkary stalked the singer on the morning of 28 July to her apartment in the Dubai Marina complex, dominating a hold full of yachts. From the pressure group, he rang her tV intercom, exhibit her an ID of the direction company from which she had lately bought the apartment. She buzzed him in, police force say.
Once inside the flat he stabbed her repeatedly with a knife, then shed his overalls and cap, dumping them in a trumpery bin outside the building, the officials said. They were ground by police force and tried for DNA. Police say that the killer's face also appeared on security camera footage. On Thursday, Egypt's independent Al-Masri Al-Youm newspaper published transcripts of alleged telephone set conversations kept by el-Sukkary and seized by the police. In one of those calls, Moustafa says that 'the agreed sum of money is ready' and tells the security measures man: 'Tomorrow she is in London and you should move.' In a later tape, el-Sukkary explains that he lost his prospect in London and 'will wait to move it to Dubai'. Moustafa chides him at first and then says: 'OK, let's finish with this.'
A senior Egyptian law official, oral presentation to the Associated Press news agency on condition of anonymity, confirmed the transcript, because those investigation details had not been officially released.
While other affluent businessmen close to the ruling National Democratic political party in Egypt have at large prosecution on crimes ranging from corruption to manslaughter, the unexpected speed of the moves against Moustafa reflect the growing political discontent over the influence wielded by businessmen world Health Organization dominate the government and their apparent immunity from prosecution.
Earlier this year, in that location was far-flung public ire when the millionaire owner of a ferry company was acquitted of nonperformance in a case that involved a Red Sea ferry which sank in 2005 with the death of 1,000 people.
Pressure from Dubai also appears to have played its part in the decision to strip Moustafa of his resistance from prosecution and apprehend him.
Mustafa el-Said, the chairman of the People's Assembly Economic Committee, told Al-Ahram Weekly last week that the swiftness of the indictment signalled a desire to place a message to the country's business elite that its tea cosy relationship with those in power may be climax to an end. 'The NDP is sending the message that it will not tolerate criminal practices from business community, regardless of who they are or how much money they give to fund the party.'
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