EGYPT: The diva assassination plot thickens
The mystery of the slain diva grows more curious by the day.
The body of Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim was found in her Dubai apartment in July, and since then the case has veered from the skyscrapers of the Persian Gulf emirate to the upper crust of Egyptian politics. At least, that's what some newspapers would have you believe.
But that was before Abdel-Maguid Mahmoud, Egypt's prosecutor general, ordered a ban on publishing stories about the slaying. On Sunday, authorities confiscated from newsstands copies of the independent Al-Dustour, which had run a tale headlined: âWas an Egyptian public figure involved in the murder of Suzanne Tamim?â
The Egyptian government usually moves against the independent press when someone in the ruling National Democratic Party is in trouble. Al-Dustour and other newspapers in the Arab world have hinted that one of the singerâs former lovers, an Egyptian real estate tycoon and member of Parliament, may be a suspect in the investigation. Media reports say the man who Dubai police arrested on suspicion of slitting Tamimâs throat has connections to and was paid by the businessman.
The rest is rumor, whispered asides and innuendo, which, in a country like Egypt, where facts are spare and information is tightly controlled by the government, take on a life of their own. The prosecutorâs decision to ban stories and question journalists only increases suspicion in the very places the government would prefer that no light be shed at all.
â Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo
Photo: Singer Suzanne Tamim, seen in a Cairo photo shoot, was found dead in her apartment on July 28. Credit: STRI / AFP/Getty Images
