Cairo: Egyptian property tycoon Hesham Talaat Mustafa began his retrial yesterday, fighting charges of orchestrating the brutal murder of a Lebanese pop singer.
Mustafa, a member of parliament in Egypt's ruling party and former chairman of Talaat Mustafa Group, was granted a retrial in March. He was sentenced last year to hang along with Mohsin Al Sukkari, the security man whom the tycoon is charged with paying to stab Suzan Tamim to death in Dubai.
Convicting an influential member of Egypt's business elite caused ripples across the Arab world and came as a surprise to many in Egypt, where such business leaders are often regarded as above the law.
Attendance
Sukkari and Mustafa, who was arrested just months after Suzan's murder in July 2008, attended the session.
"It didn't happen. None of that happened, sir," Mustafa told the court from inside a cage where both defendants were held for the hearing, the usual practice in criminal courts.
"I swear by God the Great that I didn't commit any of that," Sukkari said in response to the judge.
