Egyptian tycoon's retrial in Suzan Tamim murder begins
Lawyer says Egyptian mogul was framed up due to alleged business rivalry
Cairo: An Egyptian court on Monday started the retrial of Hesham Talaat Mustafa, a business mogul charged with inciting the killing of a Lebanese singer in Dubai more than three years ago.
The retrial by the Court of Cassation, Egypt's highest judicial authority, came three weeks after the court revoked a 15-year sentence handed down to Mustafa, a former lawmaker.
A retrial was also ordered for Mohsin Al Sukkari, the prime defendant in the same case who had been previously sentenced to 25 years in jail.
Both defendants Monday appeared in the cage of the court in central Cairo. Mustafa and Al Sukkari, an ex-policeman, pleaded not guilty at the beginning of the hearing held amid tight security.
Their defence lawyers argued for their innocence, claiming that the evidence cited by prosecutors in the case was damaged and that the testimonies given by witnesses were conflicting.
Abdul Rauf Mahdi, Mustafa's lawyer, told the court that his client had been framed up in the case due to alleged business rivalry.
"This case should not have been investigated and heard in Egypt because the murder was committed outside the country," he argued.
The court has yet to set a date for a final verdict. The court will uphold the sentences, commute them or acquit both defendants, according to legal experts.
In May 2009, a criminal court sentenced Mustafa and Al Sukkari to death over killing the Lebanese pop singer Suzan Tamim. The sentencing was commuted in September 2010.
The case, dubbed in the local press as the case of love and blood, has generated massive attention across the Arab world since it first surfaced in the summer of 2008.
Mustafa is one of Egypt's top real-estate developers and a leading politician in the toppled president Hosni Mubarak's now-disbanded party. He had reportedly fallen for Suzan who jilted him after allegedly swindling him out of a fortune.
Mustafa is accused of having hired Al Sukkari for killing Suzan in return for two million dollars. Suzan, 30, was found dead in her luxury apartment in Dubai in August 2008.
