CAIRO: The trial of Egyptian construction mogul and former state security officer for the murder of Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim in July 2008 will resume today following a one day adjournment.
Ex-chairman of Talaat Moustafa Group, Hisham Talaat Moustafa had allegedly paid former officer Mohsen Al-Sukkari millions of dollars to kill Tamim at her Dubai apartment last year.
During the Saturday hearing, the court listened to the testimony of head of the Dubai Criminal Investigations police unit Khalil Ibrahim Mohammed.
A press ban on the case instituted by the presiding judge Al-Mohammedi Qunsua, however, means details of events inside the courtroom cannot be reported.
Qunsua dictated early on in the trial that only court decisions, adjournments and any sentencing handed out may be reported.
The trial was adjourned till today pending receipt of a report on Tamim’s mobile phone and SIM card, as well as a statement from the company that set up the security cameras in Tamim’s apartment building.
Al-Sukkari is accused of carrying out the murder – a brutal killing in which Tamim was stabbed several times and had her throat slit – at the behest of Moustafa, who had an affair with the singer in the past, according to his lawyer.
It was police authorities in Dubai who fingered Al-Sukkari and had him arrested an hour and a half after landing in Cairo on the day of the murder. They identified him using footage from the building’s security cameras and found a change of clothes caked with blood outside the building, allegedly belonging to him.
Moustafa was arrested Sept. 2 after parliamentary immunity was lifted from him. He is also a member of the policies secretariat of the National Democratic Party.
Qunsua declared the press ban because, in his reasoning, he did not want the media to influence public opinion with its coverage.
Five journalists from Al-Masry Al-Youm and Al-Wafd have been on trial since Dec. 4 for violating the press ban and a verdict is expected in their case Feb. 26.
Al-Masry Al-Youm editor Magdy El-Galad along with reporters Yousri El-Badri and Farouk El-Dessouki are in the dock alongside Al-Wafd editor Abbas El-Tarabili and journalist Ibrahim Qaraa.
The journalists’ defense team is looking for an acquittal because a similar case brought against state-run newspapers was dropped by the Prosecutor General late November without being referred to trial.
Lawyer for the defendants Essam Sultan recently told Daily News Egypt that there was a double standard in the way the two cases had progressed and for this reason the court had to acquit the journalists.
“We acquired the decision from the Prosecutor General and its reasons for not trying the state-run newspapers and submitted it in court, he said. “The reporting was the same, so the decision to put some newspapers on trial and not others indicates a double standard.
Sultan added that this way, “the court is now in a bind, and that’s why the verdict was delayed. It’s difficult to secure a convicting in this case; the defendants must be exonerated.
