Defendants in Suzanne Tamim prepare for retrial

By Mohammed Mahmoud in Cairo
For Al-Shorfa.com
2010-03-08



				[AFP/Getty Images] Egyptian tycoon Hisham Talaat Mustafa and Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim, the woman he allegedly murdered.

[AFP/Getty Images] Egyptian tycoon Hisham Talaat Mustafa and Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim, the woman he allegedly murdered.

The Egyptian Court of Cassation sent the Suzanne Tamim murder case back to square one Thursday (March 4th), after accepting an appeal against the death sentence handed down to businessman Hesham Talaat Mustafa and former policeman Muhsin Al-Sukkari.

The case in which money, power and glamour were all intertwined has captivated the attention of Egyptians during the entire trial of Mustafa and Sukkari, lasting more than 18 months.

Legal experts told Al-Shorfa that the ruling of the Egyptian Court of Cassation was expected. A new ruling by other criminal courts could take more than a year from the time the appeal was accepted, especially now that the two defendants will be retried.

The Court of Cassation overturned a death sentence for Mustafa and Al-Sukkari, accepted their appeal and ordered a retrial in another criminal court other than the Criminal Court of Cairo. The two men were convicted in May 2009 of murdering singer Suzanne Tamim.

Tamim was found stabbed to death in her Dubai apartment in July 2008. The UAE police investigated her death and asked the Egyptian Public Prosecution to search for Muhsin Al-Sukkari, after blood-stained clothes belonging to him were found in a fire extinguisher box in the basement of the building where Tamim lived.

Law professor Dr. Atif Al-Banna told Al-Shorfa that "the court had two ways of proceeding with this case. The first one would have bee to uphold the death sentence issued by the criminal court. In this case the ruling would have to be executed except in case of a presidential pardon according to the Egyptian constitution."

Al-Banna added that "the second way would be to accept the appeal and order a retrial of the case in another criminal court and restart the hearing of the witnesses and the defendants as if the previous death sentence was never pronounced."

He said that the reasons for accepting the appeal according to Egyptian laws could be defects that the judge found in the criminal court's ruling which mandated overturning it, such as insufficient evidence or deficient reasoning, or any other reason mentioned in the laws related to the procedures of appealing court rulings.

Al-Banna explained that when a retrial in another court is ordered in such cases, it normally takes one year to 18 months, because it could take months before the commencement of the retrial.

The murder of Suzanne Tamim sent shockwaves across the Egyptian political, economic and media spheres.

Hesham Talaat is not an ordinary businessman. He is the CEO and owner of the real estate branch of the Talaat Mustafa Group, which is one of the three biggest companies in the real estate sector in the Egyptian Exchange. Its assets are valued at 34.5 billion Egyptian pounds.

The Chief of the Court of Cassation, Adel Abdul Hamid, refused to disclose the reasons for accepting the appeal before the court finalises the wording of the ruling.

Mohammed Bahauddin Abu Shuqqa, one of Mustafa's lawyers, said in a press conference following the ruling that "the acceptance of the appeal could be the result of a deficiency in the criminal court ruling which relied on two pieces of evidence and did not mention their details in the ruling."

He added that "the evidence relied on the testimony of the mother of singer Suzanne Tamim given during the investigations in Dubai and the testimony of Maj. Samih Mohammed Salim, an officer at the Egyptian criminal investigation department."

On the political front, Egypt's ruling party, the National Democratic Party (NDP), was affected by the loss of one of its leading figures and financier for the last 10 years. Mustafa was also a member of the Shura Council.

The leadership of the NDP has purposefully avoided interfering or commenting on the case in the media.

Sherine Fouad, MP and member of the NDP, told Al-Shorfa that "Hesham Talaat Mustafa's case has proven the transparency and fairness of the Egyptian judiciary and that the NDP will not provide cover for any of its members who have been accused by the Public Prosecution."

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Reader Comments

آمانج2010-12-14 03:00:00

They must be prosecuted.

هشام النحاس2010-10-18 22:02:00

First, the Egyptian judiciary is still good, and this is a complicated case. Sentencing a suspect to death is not an easy decision for a judge to make, and the judge has to deliberate and think about the innocence of the convict. Commuting a penalty means that the judge has doubts about the conviction, and he handles people’s lives. In addition, a smart man like Hisham cannot commit a naïve crime like this. The same thing applies to al-Sukkari, who was a former officer at the State Security Apparatus, which means that he is acquainted with crimes and forensic evidence. Hence, it is illogical for him to leave his T-shirt behind. Likewise, all people know that Suzan, may God forgive her sins, had relationships with many men like Hisham, and even worse. So, it is very possible that someone tried to make it look as if he was involved in this case, and he must have enemies, and this is very possible in Dubai, and with the help of its police, because the opponent is from the Gulf. Of course, Hisham was wrong to have notorious relationships. I wish that all of us would be reasonable and avoid believing everything that is published in the mass media, which want to get a scoop at the expense of anyone. Anyway, we should not forget that her Arab husband asked Hisham to compensate him for leaving her! What does this mean? I ask God to guide the fair Egyptian judiciary.

nazanin2010-09-07 10:00:00

Hi. I am truly sad. I used to worship Susan and I loved her very much.

صابر2010-08-15 14:03:00

God knows best and he is the main punisher!

نماینده شرکت های مسافربری عدل2010-08-14 15:01:00

God almighty is the judge for all of us, and he is the only true punisher. However, I am terribly sorry about the fact that some judges dishonor a sacred word [such as] “Judge”, only for money. I hope that God almighty punishes the perpetrators of this criminal act as soon as possible, so everyone can see the consequences of evil acts.

عيد2010-07-06 05:01:00

There are many rumors surrounding this subject. The murder of the artist Suzanne Tamim, who is of Lebanese origin, came as a shock to the artistic field and to the public that follows the events taking place in the art and entertainment arena. Despite the fact that this artist will not achieve the fame that she could have achieved, as she has been killed, the cause is still unknown by many people, and everyone is saying something different according to their own speculations. Some accuse her of having been in love with a rich man, and others say that she was killed because she was working as a spy for some country which was supporting her financially by sending her money. These doubts were raised due to the large amounts of money that were in her possession, and although she was an artist, she was not practicing her artistic career in a consistent manner and she was not performing at events, so that it could be said that she earned the money in that way.

محمد صدري2010-04-28 03:02:00

The punishment for a murderer is execution. This is Quranic retaliation. Mustafa Tal’at wanted to use his money in order to purchase Suzan Tamim’s beauty, as well as her heart. However, there are women who are not for sale and Suzan was one of them. Hence, Tal’at, who always used to purchase everything with his money, couldn’t take no for an answer! Therefore, he ordered her to be killed. But in fact, it was Suzan Tamim’s extraordinary beauty that killed her. Women, who are extremely beautiful, are rarely safe from rich people. Hisham Tal’at Mustafa must be killed in the same manner in which Suzan was murdered, with the same number of stab wounds. This way, the divine justice will be executed. Suzan Tamim’s had the face of an angel: So unique, so unparalleled, magical, heavenly, and … irreplaceable!

سكر2010-04-04 20:02:00

The question here is, "What is the end of the story?"

طارق حمدى2010-03-29 19:04:00

We ask Allah to guide the judges of Egypt to pass fair judgment, which pleases Him, without fearing the influence or authority of anyone other than Allah the Almighty. The truth is as clear as the sun, but this case, which has captured the public interest in Egypt, the Arab world and even Europe, requires special care; and we all should know that slow justice is better than swift injustice. That is because injustice in such a case can never be undone, if new evidence appears that may prove the defendants are innocent.

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