Cairo: An Egyptian court is due to pass a ruling in the murder trial of a Lebanese singer, in which an Egyptian business tycoon is allegedly involved, on May 21.
Over the past six months, the Cairo Criminal Court has cross-examined some 37 witnesses from Egypt and the United Arab Emirates in the high-profile trial of Hesham Talaat Moustafa, one of Egypt's leading real-estate developers, accused of inciting the murder of Lebanese singer Suzan Tamim in Dubai last summer.
The witnesses included a UAE policemen and foresnic medics from Dubai, in addition to Egyptian policemen and employees in the Hesham Talaat company.
Mohssen Al Sukkari, an ex-Egyptian policeman, claimed that Hesham, an ex-MP, had ordered him to kill Suzan, with whom Hesham had an allegedly failed affair, in return for 2 million dollars.
Prosecutors told the court that Al Sukkari had tracked down Suzan from Britain to Dubai where she was found slain in her luxury apartment on July 28, 2008.
In the final hearing session on Wednesday, Al Sukkari and Hesham pleaded not guilty. Both face death if convicted.
Last November, the chief judge of the court Mohammadi Qensou ordered a media gag on reporting about the case, except for the coourt pronouncements and the final verdict, citing "bids to influence public opinion".
Since the details of the crime surfaced, the trial has generated media and public frenzy mainly because the co-defendant Hesham is a senior politician in President Hosni Mubarak's ruling party and a business mogul in a country where several businessmen have recently been brought to justice.
