THE husband of a murdered pop diva has revealed that she feared she would be killed by a professional hitman, allegedly hired by her former lover.
Last week a senior Egyptian politician, Hisham Talaat Mustafa, was charged with paying $2 million for the killing of the Lebanese pop singer Suzanne Tamim, reportedly his one-time lover.
Her husband, the world kick-boxing champion Riyadh Alazz
awi, has told a Sunday newspaper that police in London were warned of the threats to his wife, but failed to act.
Mustafa was arrested and charged with ordering the murder of Ms Tamim at her flat in Dubai in July. Mustafa has been stripped of his parliamentary immunity and is being held pending trial.
Mohsen al-Sukkari, a retired Egyptian policeman, has also been arrested, and charged with carrying out the murder. Both men could face the death penalty.
Ms Tamim, 30, who rose to fame after winning a Lebanese talent show in 1996, was stabbed several times and had an 8in slash across her throat which almost decapitated her.
This weekend, Mr Alazzawi said: "Suzanne told me that (Mustafa] had phoned her and said that if she left me and went to marry him he would pay her $50 million. He then said that if she refused he would then kill her (by paying] $1m."
A spokesman for Scotland Yard said allegations it had received were investigated, and no criminal offence within its jurisdiction had emerged.
The full article contains 248 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
