EXCLUSIVE: Inside the Life of Middle East’s Slain Pop Princess

She’s the face behind a crime that shook the Middle East. Suzan Tamim, a Lebanese singer who was murdered in Dubai, is the subject of an October 18 trial in Cairo that could see one of Egypt’s most powerful politicians face the death penalty.

An undated file picture shows Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim posing during a photoshoot in Egypt….

An undated file picture shows Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim posing during a photoshoot in Egypt. Tamim was found dead in the Gulf emirate of Dubai on July 28, 2008, a security official told AFP. No further details about the cause of death were released.

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Pictures of Suzan, who was 30 at the time of her death, show a sultry pop star with a commanding presence, her talent bathed in sensuality. What they failed to capture was a woman who friends say never had control of her own life, because she never freed herself from the men who controlled her.

“Suzan was the victim of her beauty,” friend and stylist Joe Raad told ABC News.

In the Tamim family home in Beirut, a grand, if run-down French mandate-era house, Abed al-Sattar Tamim recalls his daughter’s musical beginnings: as a toddler Suzan was the neighborhood doll, singing religious music for family and friends.

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