CAIRO-An Egyptian criminal court on Saturday adjourned until Tuesday resuming the retrial of a real estate mogul, whose death sentence for the murder of a Lebanese singer was overturned last April by the nation's highest court. The Criminal Court announced the postponement decision after defence lawyers for Hesham Talaat Moustafa, a leading Egyptian construction mogul, and Mohssen el-Sukkari, an ex-State security police officer, said they could not make their arguments due to a strike declared by the nation's lawyers in a mounting standoff with the judges. "We can't make our pleas because of the strike, the violators of which are punished by the Bar Association," said Farid el-Deeb, a key defence lawyer for Moustafa told the court. Moustafa, a property magnate, was accused of paying el-Sukari two million dollars to kill his one-time lover in July 2008 in a luxury Dubai apartment, which she had bought only months before the murder. The case with its mix of wealth, show business and politics has gripped Egypt, where powerful businessmen are rarely seen to face justice. Moustafa, a former legislator and the member of the ruling National Democratic Party, is accused of paying millions of dollars to el-Sukari to kill the 30-year old singer, who was found dead in her Dubai apartment in July 2008.
