Egypt's Cassation Court Saturday explained reasons for orderring a retrial of an Egyptian business tycoon and an ex-police officer previously sentenced to death over involvement in the slaying of Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim in Dubai in 2008. "Prosecutors in Egypt began investigating the case on August 6, 2008, while the official notice from Dubai was delivered on August 29. This means the Egyptian court was not the one concerned with this case," said Judge Adel Abde-Hamid, the head of Cassation Court on Saturday. He added that this meant that the investigations and questioning of all witnesses and the two defendants had no legal base. "The case must be re-investigated," Abdel-Hamid told a press conference in Cairo on Saturday. Property tycoon Hesham Talaat Moustafa, 50, and former police officer Mohssen el-Sukkari were sentenced to death last May for allegedly killing Tamim in Dubai in July 2008. The court of Cassation, Egypt's highest judicial authority, last February ordered the retrial of both. The chief judge of the same court said on Saturday the ruling issued by the criminal court neglected many things ranging from the lawyers' right to defend their clients to the wrong evidence on which it based its verdict. In a letter written from prison, Moustafa praised his country's judiciary following a decision to grant him a retrial last month. “God knows I'm innocent from this accusation that brought the death sentence upon me,” he wrote. “I was strong, composed and sure that justice would prevail.” The case grabbed the Egyptian and Arab media due to the fact that Moustafa is a multi-billionaire, a member of the ruling National Democratic Party and a member of the Parliament. The case has been dubbed in the local media as the case of wealth and love, allegedly for a brief love affair between Moustafa and Tamim.
