Egypt's highest appeals court on Thursday ordered a retrial for a real-estate tycoon and former lawmaker sentenced to death for killing a Lebanese pop singer, DPA reported.
Judge Adil Abdel-Hamid, announcing the decision of the panel of judges at Cairo's Court of Cassation, said the court had found that there had been procedural errors in the trial that in May 2009 led to death sentences for real-estate magnate Hisham Talaat Mostafa, 50, and former State Security officer Mohsen al-Sokari, 40.
A Cairo criminal court had found that Mostafa had paid al-Sokari the equivalent of 2 million dollars to kill his former mistress, Lebanese pop singer Suzanne Tamim.
The case has enthralled the regional media since Tamim was found with her throat slit in her luxury Dubai apartment on July 28, 2008 - particularly after Mostafa, a former member of Egypt's upper house of parliament, was named in connection with the case.