Egyptian prosecutors have charged a billionaire businessman and parliamentarian from the ruling party with hiring a man to kill Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim in Dubai in July, the prosecution said on Tuesday. The man accused is Hesham Talaat Moustafa, chairman of the Talaat Moustafa Group, one of the biggest and most successful companies in the country's booming real estate sector. Shares in Talaat Moustafa, the country's largest listed developer by market value, fell 16 percent to 5.21 Egyptian pounds ($0.97) as reports of the indictment reached the stock market. The indictment charges former police officer Muhsen El-Sukkari with killing Tamim on July 28 in return for $2 million from the businessman. Egyptian media reports have said that Sukkari worked as a security officer at the Four Seasons Hotel in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, which Talaat Moustafa built. The indictment says Moustafa “took part through incitement, agreement and assistance with the first defendant (Sukkari) in killing the victim in revenge.” “He provided him with special information and amounts of money necessary to plan and carry out the crime,” it said. The upper house of parliament has stripped Moustafa of the legal immunity which he enjoyed as a member, it added. He is a member of the ruling National Democratic Party. Sukkari went to Tamim's apartment in Dubai on July 28 and gained access by pretending to be a representative of the company which owns the building, bringing a present and a letter of thanks.
