Egypt Tycoon Charged with Ordering Lebanese Singer Killing

CAIRO (AFP) — Egyptian tycoon Hisham Talaat Mustafa was charged on Tuesday with paying two million dollars for the brutal killing of Lebanese pop singer Suzanne Tamim, reportedly his one-time lover.

Mustafa was arrested and charged with ordering the murder of Tamim at her upmarket flat in Dubai in July, Egyptian prosecutor Abdel Meguid Mahmud said in a statement carried by the official MENA news agency.

Tamim, 30, who rose to fame after winning a Lebanese talent show in 1996 but recently had disappeared from the public eye, was stabbed several times and her throat cut, allegedly by a retired policeman paid by Mustafa.

Mustafa, a stalwart of the ruling National Democratic Party and member of the Shura Council, Egypt's upper house of parliament, runs the Talaat Mustafa Group real estate conglomerate worth several billion dollars.

He is also said to be close to President Hosni Mubarak's son and heir apparent Gamal.

A judicial source said Mustafa, who was born in 1959, had been arrested and was being held pending trial.

Read more here.

Did you say EZZ??

Following the Egyptian Evening TV Shows over this past two weeks, two topics kept coming up.

The first is the seasonal misery and heart ache contracted by all families with kids in the Egyptian school system. It is the Thanaweya 3ama exams (Egyptian Diploma).

The second topic is that of Ahmed Ezz. And I am not talking about the Egyptian actor by the same name. (I wish I was. The guy is really cute.)

I am actually talking about Ahmed Ezz, the STEAL, sorry I mean STEEL Tycoon. For those of you who don't know who he is, here is what is written about him in Wikipedia:

"Ezz is an Egyptian politician and business tycoon, he is the Chairman and Managing Director of Al Ezz Industries, a leading company in the manufacturing of steel and ceramic industries in the Middle East and North Africa Region. He is also the Chairman of the Planning and Budget Committee of the People's Assembly of Egypt as a member of the National Democratic Party of Egypt. Opposition parties, other parliamentarians, and groups including the banned Muslim Brotherhood movement is accusing Ezz of monopolizing the steel industry in Egypt by holding more than 60 percent of the market share, describing it as an act that is backed up by the government when the dominant share of monopoly was raised from 35 percent to 65 percent, an act that was described by the active parliamentarian Aboul Ezz Al Hariri as enhancing the proliferation of monopolies rather than fighting them. The groups mentioned are even blaming him of increasing the steel prices of as much as 70 percent. But Ezz does not seem affected by the almost daily drubbings he gets in the press. He dryly told reporters that a competition law would at least provide a legal framework preventing everyone from making accusations."

I don't have much to add to the above, except that Ezz's domination of the Egyptian news and his unprecedented political power, remind me of my favorite comedian Foad Al Mohandis. In one of his 60s movies, every time the name Ezz was mentioned, his wife Shwikar would say: " Did you say Ezz??? Then you must be my dad's murderer!!! Oh dad!!"

In yet another occasion were life imitates art, I am starting to get the feeling that this "Ezz" complex is slowly but surely inflicting all Egyptians.