The June 2001 death of film star Soad Hosni, also known as Cinderella of Arab Cinema, continues to be a mystery that has baffled many of her fans and is now fuelling speculation by her family that she may have been murdered. The actress had been receiving treatment for spinal fracture in London when she reportedly fell off her Stewart Tower apartment balcony. Her death fuelled numerous conspiracy theories that she had been murdered and pushed off her balcony. Despite conflicting evidence, British authorities eventually ruled her death was likely the result of suicide. According to Akhbar Al Hawadith, Berlanti Shaikhoun, Hosni's family lawyer is seeking answers to her death and has requested the public prosecutor to exhume the body of the star and examine it in an attempt to unveil the true cause of her death and reopen the case. Shaikhoun's request followed her successful bid to convince a court to suspend the broadcast of television serial - "El-Cinderella - based on Hosni's life, which, according to her family, reflects badly on the star and her sister singer Nagat Al-Saghira. Elaborating on the issue, Al Ahram Daily reported that the exhumation has been requested by Hosni's family after new telling evidence has recently surfaced indicating that the star was murdered. According to the Arabic-language dailies, one incriminating piece of evidence is a lost sum of money estimated at $75,000 that Hosni had withdrawn from a London bank a month before her death. The family claims that amount was not in the list of her belongings handed over to the family following her death. Her sister Janja said it was impossible that she could have spent all that money in one month, which might raise the possibility that the murder was committed to rob the artist especially that some of her belongings, including gold items, documents, a gold watch and her passport were never seen after the murder. The second piece of evidence has been a music tape belonging to Hosni which included a telephone conversation between Nadia Yousri, Hosni's friend and owner of the flat where the ailing star had been staying, and a man called Essam. The conversation revolved around another man who carried a duplicate key of Nadia's flat. Also minutes before she fell, her neighbors heard her exchanging shouts with a stranger in what is believed to be a dispute that preceded the accident.
