An Egyptian man, Mohsen Al Sukkari sentenced for killing Lebanese musician Suzanne Tamim in Dubai has been freed from prison after serving 14 years, his defence lawyer said.
Al Sukkari was sentenced to life in prison in 2009 after he was found guilty of Tamim’s murder. Egyptian real estate tycoon Hisham Taalat Moustafa, who the pop star was reportedly in a relationship with., was implicated in the murder case.
The former state security official later received a presidential pardon after receiving the death sentence. He was meant to be released in 2020, but he was sentenced to additional three years at the time in a separate case of money laundering.
Following appeals, the three-year sentence was cut in half, a duration that ended this month. Moustafa, a former parliamentarian and close ally of the regime of former president Hosni Mubarak, was apprehended in 2008. He was sentenced to death by hanging in 2009 for ordering Al Sukkari to murder Tamim in exchange for $2 million.
Evidence reviewed by the court at the time included extensive recordings of conversations between Moustafa and Al Sukkari.
There was security footage from Tamim’s apartment in Dubai and DNA was found on the bloodied clothes Mr Al Sukkari, who was accused of disposing of the evidence near the scene of the crime.
However, in 2010 following a successful appeal against the death sentence, Moustafa and Al Sukkari received a retrial. This was reportedly approved over legal technicalities which the pair’s defence team used to discredit the initial ruling.
Moustafa was thereafter sentenced to 15 years in prison, of which he served nine and was released in 2017 after receiving a presidential pardon.
Although the murder took place at a Dubai apartment that Tamim was staying at, the trials took place in Egypt as the country does not allow extradition of its citizens for trials elsewhere.
Despite his imprisonment, Moustafa’s real estate company, Talaat Moustafa Group, continued to declare huge profits in Egypt.
The company announced in 2021, its largest development to date, Egypt’s first green-smart city, Noor, close to Egypt’s New Administrative Capital.