An Egyptian court has handed a billionaire accused of killing his popstar lover a lighter sentence of just 15 years after an earlier trial sentenced him to death, the state news agency said Tuesday. The judge said Hisham Talaat Moustafa, a prominent member of the ruling party, was convicted of inciting the murder of 30-year-old Suzanne Tamim, a Lebanese singer, and sentenced to 15 years in prison. The timing of the verdict comes as a surprise because the judge had not announced he would be issuing his decision and had yet to hear the defense's summation. The Egyptian real estate tycoon was sentenced to death in May 2009 after being convicted of paying a retired Egyptian police officer $2 million to kill Tamim while she was in Dubai in July 2008. The court in March overturned the conviction on procedural grounds and ordered a retrial. Police officer Mohsen El-Sukkary's murder conviction remained, but his sentence was also lightened to just life in prison, which is 25 years under the Egyptian penal code. The initial allegations shocked Egyptians unused to seeing powerful politicians perceived as untouchables taken to court, and the new light sentences are certain to raise charges that Moustafa's influence kept him from the gallows. Moustafa, a member of parliament's upper house, the Shoura Council, was also a member of the ruling party's policies committee, which is chaired by President Hosni Mubarak's son, Gamal.
