A champion kickboxer has lost his bid to sue an Egyptian multi-millionaire in British courts after his girlfriend was savagely murdered.
Lebanese singer Suzan Tamim shot to fame as winner of a ‘Pop Idol’-style Arabic TV talent show in 1996 and became one of the biggest stars in the Middle East.
After moving to the UK, she formed a relationship with flamboyant London-based British-Iraqi kickboxer, Riyadh Al-Azzawi, a former six-time world champion, renowned for his fleet of gold-plated supercars.
But her life was cut short aged 30 in 2008 when she was savagely murdered in a Dubai apartment by killer Mohsen Al-Sukkari.
A Dubai court found the assassin had been directed by Ms Tamim’s spurned suitor, multi-millionaire Egyptian tycoon Hisham Talaat Moustafa and the pair were convicted of murder and initially sentenced to death in 2010.
They were later re-sentenced to jail terms, but Mr Moustafa was given a presidential pardon and released in 2017.
After earlier claims through the Dubai criminal courts were rejected, Mr Al-Azzawi in 2022 instead brought a civil claim for ‘many millions’ in compensation to the High Court in London.
But his UK compensation bid has been ended after High Court judge, Mr Justice Butcher, overturned previous orders which had extended time for the case to be served on Mr Moustafa outside of the country.
The court heard kickboxer Mr Al-Azzawi was born in Iraq, but moved to the UK, where he obtained British citizenship. He now spends his time between London and Dubai.
He became the first Arab to win the world kickboxing title in 2008, before chalking up another five subsequent victories.
Known as the ‘golden champion’, the 39-year-old is famed for his flamboyance, wearing golden clothes and jewellery and driving gold-wrapped sports cars.
Ms Tamim, who he claims to have wed in an Islamic marriage in 2007, found fame in the late 1990s after winning top prize in the popular Studio El Fan television show.
Setting out Mr Al-Azzawi’s case, the judge said he claimed Egyptian tycoon Mr Moustafa had attempted to pressure Ms Tamim into marriage, causing her to flee from Egypt to London.
She met the kickboxer there, but Mr Moustafa ‘had not abandoned his pursuit’ of her and, after offering her money, ‘then turned to direct threats and intimidation’.
‘In the particulars of claim, it is alleged that one of these threats was a message sent to Ms Tamim while she was in London, which said, “Fifty million dollars says you come back to Cairo to marry me or one million dollars says I have your throat cut”,’ said the judge.
‘The claimant’s evidence is, further, that in July 2008, Ms Tamim travelled to Dubai to stay in the apartment which she and the claimant owned.
‘On 28 July 2008, she was murdered in that apartment by Mohsen Al-Sukkari, a former officer with the Egyptian police, who took not only Ms Tamim’s life but that of her and the claimant’s unborn child.
‘The Dubai police had then launched an investigation, which had gathered evidence indicating that the defendant (Mr Moustafa) had ordered the murder and paid Al-Sukkari a substantial sum for it to be done.’
Both men were found guilty after several trials and appeals, with Mr Al-Sukkari ultimately jailed for life and Mr Moustafa for 15 years.
Mr Moustafa, who is now 65, was released after receiving a presidential pardon in 2017, while Mr Al-Sukkari was released in similar circumstances in 2022.
Mr Al-Azzawi ultimately launched his case against Mr Moustafa in 2022, having complained of ‘grief, psychological and emotional damage’ and a serious negative impact on his kickboxing career, as well as future loss of earnings on behalf of his late partner’s estate.
He estimated his claim would be worth ‘many millions,’ said the judge.
However, because Mr Moustafa was outside of the UK, he had to apply for permission from the High Court to serve claim documents outside the country.
The kickboxer was initially successful but the case came back to court earlier this month when Mr Moustafa applied for the orders to be set aside, claiming that the UK court has no jurisdiction to hear the claim.
His lawyers claimed there was a failure on the part of Mr Al-Azzawi’s team to ‘make proper disclosure’ in relation to their argument that he brought his claim too late under UAE law, a fact which the High Court was bound to take into account.
Giving judgment, Mr Justice Butcher said Mr Moustafa claimed it is ‘highly arguable’ that the claim would be considered too late – ‘time-barred’ – and agreed that there is ‘at the least, a very real question as to whether proceedings commenced in 2022 are time-barred.’
He said there had been ‘a failure to comply with the duty to make proper disclosure’ when Mr Al-Azzawi’s lawyers sought permission to serve the UK case papers on Mr Moustafa in Egypt and that the orders extending time and allowing service outside of the UK would be set aside.
He said: ‘While it is argued by the claimant that this gives rise to a windfall to the defendant, who is not required to answer for the claimant’s claim, founded as it is on a truly appalling incident, this is something which is common in applications of this sort.
‘If the claimant cannot now pursue his claims because they are time-barred, the responsibility for that does not rest with the defendant.’
He added that, even if the service orders had not been set aside, he would have halted the UK action on the basis that the Dubai courts were ‘clearly and distinctly more appropriate’ for deciding the claim.
The kickboxer can continue his bid to sue in the UAE if the courts there find he is not outside the time limit to do so.
