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EGYPT: Billionaire’s death penalty overturned; retrial is set

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Egyptian billionaire Hisham Talaat Mustafa’s death penalty for ordering the murder of his Lebanese singer ex-girlfriend Suzan Tamim has been overturned after the higher appeals court accepted his appeal of the verdict Thursday.

Mustafa received the death penalty from Cairo’s criminal court in May 2009 following his indictment for paying ex-policeman Mohsen Sukkari $2 million to kill Tamim in her Dubai apartment in July 2008.

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Sukkari was similarly sentenced to death but the pair will now have a new trial after the case was referred to another criminal court in another judiciary district.

The controversial case, which took the Arab world by storm, left millions of Egyptians skeptical that the death ruling would ever be implemented because of Mustafa’s financial might and strong ties with powerful politicians. Thursday’s verdict confirmed the doubts.

The real estate tycoon and former member of the Shura Council (Egypt’s higher parliament) and current member of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), is believed to be close to President Hosni Mubarak and his son and head of the NDP’s policies committee, Gamal.

However, Sukkari’s lawyer, who was seen joyfully celebrating with other solicitors defending his client and Mustafa upon hearing the retrial verdict, is firm that the case had not been influenced by politics.

‘Whoever says or believes that the case is politicized is blind and needs to wear glasses. Today we had a fair and just judgment,’ lawyer Atef Menawi said.

Both Mustafa and Sukkari will remain in custody until the new trial is concluded.

The case began when the Egyptian police learned that Mustafa – married, with three children – helped Sukkari obtain visas to Britain and the United Arab Emirates to allegedly stalk and kill Tamim after she refused to continue her affair with the wealthy businessman.

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Sukkari was arrested after Dubai police found a footprint at the crime scene matching another print at a shop where he used a credit card.

‘The DNA is clear and unambiguous. Sukkari committed the crime and the suspected involvement of Mustafa came later in Egypt,’ Dubai police chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim had told Egyptian television channel Al Hayat.

Mustafa was arrested and stripped of his parliamentary immunity one month after Suzan Tamim’s death.

-- Amro Hassan in Cairo

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