Police chase slaying suspect to Egypt

Discarded clothing at the crime scene led authorities arrest the suspect at a luxury hotel in Egypt.

Amid her musical successes, the Lebanese singer Suzan Tamim had a turbulent personal life, including allegations of drug smuggling and attempting to murder her estranged husband.

The investigation into the killing of Suzan Tamim, the Lebanese singer, began in a quiet apartment block in Dubai and led to an arrest at a luxury hotel in Egypt 72 hours later. Dubai Police say they knew the identity of Tamim's alleged killer and where to find him within hours of discovering her body. Tamim, 31, was found dead in her Jumeirah Beach Residence flat on July 28 with her throat cut and multiple stab wounds. Just three days later, the investigation reached an upmarket Cairo hotel and officers were able to piece together the movements of the prime suspect. The suspect, 39, was arrested as he relaxed by the hotel's swimming pool, a police source said. Police also revealed how the killer carried out the murder with precision timing, leaving the country within two hours of the crime. According to their account, he arrived by taxi at Tamim's Rimal 1 tower shortly before 9am from the Bur Dubai hotel, where he had checked in three days before. Within 12 minutes he had slit her throat, discarded his bloodstained clothes and was on his way to Dubai International Airport. By 11am, he was on a flight back to Cairo. "She didn't have the chance to defend herself - the attack happened at the door. He had two layers of clothes on and left the bloodstained clothes on the floor below, which led us to identify him - that was his mistake," said a Dubai Criminal Investigation Department source. In the days following the murder, more than 100 officers were assigned to the case, an Interpol alert was issued, and Dubai Police were in contact with their counterparts in Egypt. Detectives began to piece together Tamim's final movements from people inside and outside the UAE, and investigated "who would want her dead and who would benefit the most from her death", said Major Gen Khamis Mattar al Mazeina, the acting head of Dubai Police. Tamim arrived in Dubai on July 18, 10 days before she was attacked. Police believe the killer pretended to work for her estate agency to gain entry to her flat. "Her family and friends said that she would never answer the door to a stranger, so we think he must have held up an envelope to the spy-hole to prove he was with the agency, and that's when she opened the door for him," said Major Gen Mazeina. "Security committed an error in telling him where the flat was without asking for identification." CCTV images were not clear enough to be used to identify the killer. A close friend of the singer said: "I thought I knew her very well. I thought I knew everything but I feel like there was so much in her life that I did not know about. "Suzan was always seeking protection. She never felt safe. She was scared because she had legal issues to deal with and she was on antidepressants. She knew many people in Egypt where she lived for a long time until she left to London. Many were high-profile people." It is believed that Tamim moved to London from Cairo 18 months ago to start a new life but was forced to leave after her visa expired. "She didn't want to stay in London but couldn't come back home even after I pleaded with her to return," said the friend. In a bizarre twist to the story, copies of the Sunday edition of the independent Egyptian newspaper Al Dustour, which contained a story about Tamim's murder, were removed from shops. It is unclear who ordered the removal, but the main story on the newspaper's website was headlined: "Is a major Egyptian personality involved in the murder of the Lebanese singer Suzan Tamim?" Al Dustour's executive editor, Ibrahim Mansour, said: "We have not received an official notice that the newspaper has been confiscated. The newspaper was pulled out of the market last night. We do not know who did this." Tamim's road to stardom began when she signed a lucrative record deal after graduating from Studio Al Phan, an academy that nurtures up-and-coming pop stars in Lebanon, in 1996. However, she became more famous for her antics out of the studio. In 2005, she was arrested by Interpol in Egypt over allegations that she had stolen US$350,000 (Dh1.28 million) from her estranged husband and former business partner, Adel Maatouk. A Lebanese court sentenced her to two years in jail and fined her following accusations from her husband that she had fled to Egypt, breaking their management contract. While in Egypt, she faced allegations of being involved in a heroin smuggling ring with her father. Later that same year, she was accused, again with her father and another man, of attempting to murder Mr Maatouk, a Lebanese record producer. Hoping to get her promising career back on track, she returned to the recording studio in 2006. She recorded 25 songs, 10 of which were selected for her new album. Her most popular song is Saken Albi, from the album of the same title. Hours after news broke of the star's death, grief-stricken fans created a page - RIP Suzan Tamim - on Facebook. Even after her death, further controversy emerged when Riyadh al Azzawi, a British-Iraqi kick-boxer, claimed at a press conference in London on Aug 3 that he and the singer had been married for a year and lived together in London for 18 months despite her still being married to Mr Maatouk. Tamim was buried at a Beirut mosque on Aug 4.

* With agencies @Email:[e-mail] @Email:[e-mail]