Phone call tapes at centre of Tamim investigation

DUBAI DEATH: Lebanese singer Suzan Tamim. (Getty Images)

The man charged with killing Lebanese singer Suzan Tamim in Dubai has handed over telephone conversations he had with prominent businessman Hisham Talaat Moustafa to Egypt's prosecutor, it has been revealed.

Moustafa, former chairman of Egypt’s largest publicly traded real estate company and a member of the country’s upper house of parliament, has been charged with ordering the killing. Mohsen al Sokari, a former police officer, has been charged with the murder itself.

The Egyptian newspaper, Al Masry Al Youm, reported late on Thursday that it had obtained recordings of five phone calls between Moustafa and Sokari in the months before the murder. The recordings, it claimed, had been made by Sokari as a form of protection against becoming a fall guy in the case.

In one call, Moustafa is said to be assuring Sokari that he had finalised all that was necessary for his mission, revealing that the initial plan was to carry out the murder in London, where Tamim lived for 18 months before moving to Dubai just days before she was murdered.

During the call, Moustafa could be heard telling Sokari: “Everything is ready and the amount agreed on is ready. The flight is tomorrow, she is in London. You figure it out, you are a security man, come on, you know what to do,” the newspaper reported.

In another conversation, the newspaper said, Sokari told Moustafa that he did not get a chance to “do it” in London and that he would kill Tamim in Dubai. Moustafa replied: “It will be difficult there, though.”

But Sokari assured him: “Don’t worry boss, this is mine,” Al Masry Al Youm reported.

A statement issued by the Egyptian attorney general on Tuesday said investigations in Egypt confirmed that Sokari had received the money from Moustafa.

Meanwhile, Dubai police chief Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim told UAE daily The National on Friday that he was confident that justice would be done in Egypt.

He said the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had promised that "no one was above the law".

Tamim also confirmed that Dubai did not plan to seek extradition of the men.

“We have full trust in the Egyptian judicial system and we are sure that the case will be dealt with credibly,” he told the paper.

Suzan Tamim was found dead in her Dubai flat on July 28. Sokari allegedly had been hired by Moustafa as a hit man and paid $2 million.

He was arrested by Egyptian police three days after the killing at a hotel in Cairo on the request of Dubai police. Sokari had flown from Dubai to Egypt within two hours of the killing.

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