Saudi princess ‘ordered guard to beat up plumber’

Mohammed bin Salman’s sister is charged with ordering her guard to beat up a plumber in Paris.

The princess is the daughter of Saudi King Salman (R) and sister of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (L). Picture: AP.

The security chief for Princess Hussa of Saudi Arabia used force to protect her after finding her grappling with a plumber in a Paris bedroom, a court was told yesterday.

Rani Saidi was giving his account of an altercation that led to him being charged alongside the British-educated princess with assaulting Ashraf Eid, an Egyptian-born plumber, in September 2016.

Princess Hussa, 43, the only daughter of King Salman and half sister of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has refused to attend her trial and is wanted on an international arrest warrant. Her lawyers depict her as the innocent victim of an aggressive investigating judge and complained that the arrest warrant had effectively made her a prisoner in Saudi Arabia, unable to pursue her studies in London.

The princess denies that she ordered Mr Saidi to beat Mr Eid and detain him after she found him taking pictures of her while repairing a sink in the bedroom suite of the seventh floor apartment on the opulent Avenue Foch.

Emmanuel Moyne tPrincess Hussa bint Salma’s lawyer n arrives at the courthouse in Paris. Picture: AP

The plumber, who was not present at the trial, was quoted in court telling the investigating judge that he suffered 15 minutes of terror as the princess ordered him to be beaten like a dog. “This dog must be killed. He does not deserve to live,” the princess was accused of saying. Mr Eid also alleged that he was threatened with sexual violence and ordered at gunpoint to kneel and to kiss her feet.

Mr Saidi and Emmanuel Moyne, the princess’s lawyer, described Mr Eid’s account as false. She says that she called the security chief after catching the plumber taking pictures of her with his telephone. “When I heard the princess call for help, I arrived and saw them gripping one another’s hands and the telephone,” said Mr Saidi, who is in charge of the princess’s security team when she is in Europe. “I grabbed the plumber and overpowered him. I didn’t know what his intentions were.”

Mr Moyne said the guard had merely pushed the plumber on to the bed while the princess sought refuge in another room. There was no gun and no other violence. Mr Saidi said: “In 12 years of work, we had stories like that. Arabs want photos and the princess is someone very important for them.”

Princess Hussa, who used another identity when she earned an MA in diplomatic studies from the University of Westminster and an MA in human rights from London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies, faces a possible prison term if convicted of complicity in armed violence, complicity in holding someone against their will and theft of a telephone. Mr Saidi has been charged with armed violence, theft, issuing death threats and holding someone against their will.

The princess’s lawyer claimed that she had found two videos of her on the plumber’s telephone. The matter was grave because the princess’s image is protected by Saudi law and disseminating it is an offence. Mr Eid said that he had accidentally taken pictures of the princess because he had caught her reflection in a mirror as he was photographing his work. He told police that Mr Saidi had said to him: “If these pictures ever come out, you’re dead.”

The judges said it was regrettable that the telephone had been destroyed along with its data, and that CCTV images had not been gathered by police. They are expected to issue their verdict within two months.

The Times