The Egyptian Society for Art, Culture and Creativity held a commemoration ceremony for the late Tunisian singer Thikra, who was killed by her late husband Aiman Suweidi late last week. The ceremony was held at the Marriott hotel in Cairo and was attended by the Tunisian ambassador to Egypt, in addition to a large number of artists, journalists and Thikra’s fans.
The event had been running smoothly until all of the sudden two major arguments occurred during the ceremony; one of them started between the two prominent composers Hani Muhanna and his foe Salah Sharnoobi. The second argument was between famous actress Hala Sudqi from one side and a journalists from the other.
According to the London based dialy, Al Sharq Al Awsat, Salah started a speech saying how important the role of media is in revealing all the facts that circled Thikra’s sudden death. He added that there were mistakes the media committed, which was taking the word of people who barely knew the late actress to talk about her personal life. Sharnoobi went on in his speech describing Thikra’s beginnings in Cairo and his cooperation with her the thing that made Muhanna cut the speech and complain that Sharnoobi is not being fair to other composers who helped Thikra in her first steps in the world of singing. Also he asserted that he (Hani) has a major role in Thikra’s success and Sharnoobi is ignoring all his efforts in making Thikra one of the most successful singers in the Arab world, he ended by leaving the ceremony.
The other situation started when Hala Sudqi accused the media of taking any chance they get to attack the artists and create rumors about them, the thing that provoked the journalists and made them ask for immediate apology from the famous actress. The situation went from bad to worse, until the entire crowd was reminded of the cause of their gathering, which is for the sake of the late singer and to respect her past. Then Hala apologized to the media explaining that she only meant the tabloids by her remark.
In another aspect, the Egyptian police decided to cancel all the arm permissions that Sweidi (the father) has due to his negligence and lack of ability of keeping them out of others reach, including his late son. The police had found 13 different pieces of weapons in one of the father’s factories, which the father stressed that he did not allow his son to take. But Aiman was able to gain access to the weapons since he had a copy of all the keys for the factories and the companies’, due to the fact that he is also the.
Record stores around the Arab world have been witnessing a significant increase in the album sales of the late Tunisian singer Thikra, who was murdered by her husband last week. The highest sales were for her latest album “Youm Alaik” (A Day on You), which was released only days before she passed away.
It was revealed that one of the record companies has released an album that contains a mix of Thikra’s most popular songs, according to the London based daily, Al Quds Al Arabi. Another company made a collection of songs for the late singer since the moment she entered the music world and set a fixed price for her album donating a portion to the Children’s Cancer Hospital in Egypt.
Forty nine Arab artists left Cairo earlier yesterday heading to Tunisia to participate in the funeral of Thikra and to deliver their deepest condolences to Thikra’s family. Among the artists were Farouq Fishawi, Elham Shahin, Hani Muhana, Salah Sharnoubi, Najwa Fuad, Izzat Abu Ouf, Dina, Hilmi Baker, Walid Tawfiq, Saber Ruba’I, Hameed Sha’ri, Dalia Buhairi, Shireen, and Hala Sarhan. The whole group talked about the good manners the late singer had and indicated that the death of Thikra is considered a great loss to the whole Arab world.
Thirka’s family had refused lately to bury the late singer in Cairo and made communications with Prince Walid Bin Talal to have her brought to Tunisia. The Prince rented a private plane to get the corpse back to Tunisia to be buried there.
A team of doctors, who examined the body of Thikra, who was murdered by her husband, released a medical report after an autopsy was complete stating that she was shot with 26 bullets all over her body and had remained alive for only 15 minutes afterwards. The other two victims of the crime, Thikra’s secretary was shot 22 times and her business manager received 18 bullets before passing away.
The autopsy report also stated that Thikra’s husband, who committed suicide after killing the three victims, had shot himself by placing the gun in his mouth leading to his immediate death. It was also revealed that the gun used to kill the three victims is different from the one Thikra’s husband used on himself.
Thikra passed away Friday November 28, 2003, after her Egyptian husband, businessman Aiman Al Swaidi, shot her in their home in Cairo. Aiman had also shot Thikra’s secretary, business manager and then shot himself and committed suicide. The only eyewitness at the murder scene was Thikra’s made who stated that she had overheard the couple get into a massive fight and once she ran to see what was going on she was in shock to see the four dead bodies laying in the living room. –Albawaba.com
