An Egyptian court on Thursday ordered the retrial of a real estate mogul sentenced to death for murdering his former lover, a Lebanese pop star. The 50-year old businessman Hisham Talaat Moustafa was convicted last May of paying a retired Egyptian police officer, Mohsen el-Sukkary $2 million to kill 30-year-old Suzanne Tamim, while she was in Dubai in July 2008.
The Court of Cassation, the country's highest court of appeal, overturned his conviction. "The court has decided to accept ... the appeal presented by the defendants on procedural and content basis," said Judge Adel Abdel Hamid, who leads the 11-panel judges. "There will be a retrial." The reasons for accepting the appeal will be issued later, the AP reported. Lawyers argued against the sentence on grounds of faulty procedures, starting from the arrest to details of the Dubai investigation. El-Sukkary will be retried as well.
"There will be now a retrial. Thank God," said Farid el-Dib, one of nearly a dozen defense lawyers.
