CAIRO - An Egyptian court handed a billionaire charged with killing his pop star lover a lighter sentence of just 15 years after an earlier trial sentenced him to death, the state news agency said on Tuesday.

The new sentence of Hisham Talaat Moustafa, a prominent member of Egypt's ruling party, in the brutal murder of a Lebanese singer is likely to spark new accusations of political influence. Moustafa, the builder behind the luxury suburbs for the rich that now ring Cairo, was close to the powerful son of Egypt's president and has come to symbolize the close bond between businessmen and politicians in recent years.

The judge convicted Moustafa for conspiracy to murder of 30-year-old Suzanne Tamim and gave him 15 years in prison. The timing of the verdict came as a surprise because there had been no indication the retrial was ending and the defense had yet to give its summation.