Pop star's slaying turns into Mideast drama

updated 5:31 a.m. ET Sept. 5, 2008

CAIRO, Egypt - It's the Mideast version of a sordid soap opera. A Lebanese pop star is brutally murdered in her luxury Dubai apartment, her throat slashed. Arrested in her death: One of Egypt's most politically connected businessmen, accused of paying $2 million to have her killed.

The slaying of Suzanne Tamim has gone beyond a lurid crime story to something more serious — a glimpse into the close links between Egypt's government and powerful business tycoons long viewed as above the law.

It is also exposing strains between societies like Egypt's, where wealth and political power increasingly go hand in hand, and Dubai, which recently launched a high-profile push against corruption.

People in the Arab world have long followed with fascination and moral clucking the tales of businessmen and politicians cavorting with actresses, belly-dancers and singers — a sort of Hollywood Babylon in the conservative Muslim Middle East.

But even by those standards, the Tamim drama is a stunner. The 30-year-old singer, famed for her striking green eyes, was found dead in her Dubai apartment in July, with multiple stab wounds and a 20-centimeter (8 inch) slash across her throat.

Arrest comes as a surprise
This week, Egyptian authorities arrested real estate mogul Hisham Talaat Moustafa, said to be Tamim's former lover.

For many, the surprise wasn't Moustafa's alleged involvement — but his arrest.

Egyptians are widely convinced their government won't touch influential businessmen. When Moustafa's name first appeared in media reports weeks ago, he denied a role and complained on Egyptian television that the rumors hurt the economy. The government promptly banned press reports on the murder, suggesting that Moustafa was off-limits.

The tycoon is a top ruling party official close to President Hosni Mubarak's powerful son, Gamal. In the past 10 years, he has become one of Egypt's top billionaires, the owner of luxury hotels and beach resorts and a leading force in building Western-style suburbs ringing Cairo for the upper-class.

Reuters Egyptian tycoon Hesham Talaat Moustafa has been charged with hiring a hitman to kill Suzanne Tamim.

But on Tuesday, Egypt's public prosecutor accused the tycoon of contracting for the singer's killing by paying $2 million to Mohsen el-Sukkary, a former Egyptian state security officer.

El-Sukkary worked at Cairo's Four Seasons Hotel, owned by Moustafa. The prosecutor said the tycoon helped facilitate visas and tickets for the security man as he trailed the singer first to London, then to Dubai.

The singer had moved to Dubai, friends say, to break off her relationship with Moustafa, who is married. She rose to stardom in the late 1990s but then hit troubled times, separating from her Lebanese husband-manager who filed a series of lawsuits against her.

12-minute murder
According to Dubai investigators, el-Sukkary stalked the singer the morning of July 28 to her apartment in the swanky Dubai Marina complex, overlooking the Persian Gulf and a harbor full of yachts. From the lobby, he rang her video intercom, showing her an ID of the management company from which she had recently bought the apartment. She buzzed him in, police say.

Once inside, he stabbed her repeatedly with a knife, then shed his overalls and cap, dumping them in a trash bin outside the building, officials said. They were found by police and tested for DNA. Police say the killer's face also appeared on security camera footage.

"It took 12 minutes for the murderer to enter the building, kill the victim and leave," Maj. Gen. Khamis Mattar Al Mazeina of the Dubai police told a press conference.

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