Egyptian real estate mogul Hisham Talaat Moustafa has successfully had a London lawsuit against him dismissed in a high-profile case linked to the 2008 murder of Lebanese pop star Suzanne Tamim.
The lawsuit was filed in 2022 by Iraqi-British former kickboxing champion Riyadh Al-Azzawi, who was Tamim’s partner at the time of her death. Al-Azzawi sought damages in London’s High Court, claiming emotional and psychological trauma from the murder, which was orchestrated by Moustafa.
Moustafa, CEO of the Talaat Moustafa Group, was convicted in Egypt of paying a former police officer to kill Tamim at her Dubai apartment. Initially sentenced to death in 2009, the conviction was overturned, but after two retrials, he was sentenced to 15 years and later pardoned in 2017 by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
On Friday, Judge Christopher Butcher ruled in Moustafa’s favor, stating that Al-Azzawi failed to disclose crucial information about the timing of the lawsuit when seeking permission to serve Moustafa in Egypt. The judge also found that Dubai courts were a more appropriate jurisdiction for such a case.
Neither Moustafa’s legal team nor Al-Azzawi’s representatives have issued immediate comments following the ruling.
The decision marks the latest chapter in a long-running legal and emotional saga involving high-profile figures, cross-border jurisdictional questions, and one of the Middle East’s most sensational murder cases in recent history.
Written By Rodney Mbua
