CAIRO // Defence lawyers in the trial of two men accused of killing the Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim in Dubai opened their case yesterday, trying to cast doubt on the evidence collected by investigators. The singer, 31, was found dead in her apartment in Jumeirah Beach Residences in Dubai. She had been stabbed several times and her throat had been slashed. Mohsen el Sokari, 39, a former Egyptian police officer, was arrested in August in Cairo on a charge of killing Tamim. Hisham Talaat Moustafa, 49, a billionaire and a leading member of Egypt's ruling party, is accused of hiring Mr el Sokari to kill Tamim, his estranged lover, for US$2 million (Dh7.35m). Anis el Manawi, el Sokari's lawyer, said yesterday the evidence given to authorities in Egypt was unreliable. Mr el Manawi disputed the results of the post-mortem examination and the report of a DNA expert, Farida al Shemali, who had testified in court Tamim's blood was on Mr el Sokari's T-shirt, found near the victim's apartment. He said police had not thoroughly searched her apartment and did not question her neighbours. Three other lawyers for the two defendants appealed to the judge to give them more time to prepare their defence. The judge's decision was not available at the time of publication. nmagd@thenational.ae
Specs
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How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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PAKISTAN SQUAD
Pakistan - Sarfraz Ahmed (captain), Azhar Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Hafeez, Haris Sohail, Faheem Ashraf, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Amir, Hasan Ali, Aamer Yamin, Rumman Raees.