This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/12/french-court-finds-saudi-princess-complicit-in-workman-attack-hassa-bint-salman

The article has changed 7 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 4 Version 5
Paris court convicts Saudi princess over workman attack Paris court convicts Saudi princess over workman attack
(about 2 hours later)
The daughter of the king of Saudi Arabia was complicit in beating up and briefly kidnapping a workman in her luxury flat Paris, a French court ruled on Thursday, giving her a 10-month suspended prison sentence. A French court has given the daughter of Saudi Arabia’s King Salman a 10-month suspended sentence for ordering her bodyguard to detain and beat a workman who was renovating a family apartment in Paris.
Speaking after the verdict, Emmanuel Moyne, the French lawyer for Hassa bint Salman, said most of the declarations made by workman, Ashraf Eid, were false and that an appeal would be lodged. Hassa bint Salman, who was not in court for the verdict, was also fined €10,000 (£8,950). She left France soon after the 2016 incident, and although French authorities issued an international arrest warrant, she was tried in absentia.
According to the initial indictment, Eid told police that the princess’s bodyguard, Rani Saidi, had bound his hands, punched, kicked him and forced him to kiss her feet after she accused him of filming her on his cell phone. Prosecutors said Hassa had flown into a rage with Ashraf Eid after he was called to repair a damaged washbasin in a luxury apartment block owned by the Saudi royal family near the Champs Élysée in central Paris.
Eid told investigators his phone was forcibly taken from him and that as he was being beaten, Hassa treated him like a dog, telling him “you’ll see how you speak to a princess, how you speak to the royal family”. While taking pictures of the bathroom, which he told investigators he needed to carry out his work, he caught her reflection on camera. Realising her image had been captured, she called in her bodyguard who tied Eid up, punched and kicked him and ordered him to kiss the princess’s feet.
Moyne disputed the court’s conclusions. “There is nothing in the case to establish that even the slightest crime was committed. This sentence is backed by no concrete proof but rests solely on the unfounded, even mendacious, allegations made by the plaintiff who didn’t even turn up himself to the trial to support them,” he said. Eid said he was only allowed to leave several hours later, after his phone had been destroyed, and claimed that at one point during his ordeal, the princess shouted: “Kill him, the dog, he doesn’t deserve to live.”
The 43-year-old princess, sister to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was not in court for the verdict but through her lawyers, has consistently denied any wrongdoing. The punishment was heavier than prosecutors sought when the trial began in July. Hassa had been charged with complicity in an act of intentional violence, complicity in illegal confinement and complicity in theft, and they had recommended a six-month suspended sentence and a €5,000 fine.
Lisa Janaszewicz, another member of the princess’s legal team, said her client was the real victim. “By filming her without her knowing, Mr Eid broke her right to privacy. And she has suffered two years of legal proceedings … as well as treatment by the media that has unfairly changed how she is seen.” Her bodyguard, Rani Saida, the only one of the three main protagonists to appear in court, was also found guilty on charges of violence, illegal confinement and theft. He was given an eight-month suspended sentence and a €5,000 fine.
It was not immediately clear whether the ruling would complicate relations between Paris and Riyadh. A lawyer for Eid, a French-Egyptian plumber, saluted his client’s courage in bringing the case. The verdict was proof that “everyone is equal before the law”, Georges Karouni told journalists.
France has nurtured close ties with Saudi Arabia but those ties have been tested by Emmanuel Macron’s determination to salvage Iran’s nuclear accord, which Saudi Arabia, alongside the US, has adamantly opposed. Lawyers for Hassa, who is the half-sister of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and de facto leader, Mohammed bin Salman, said they were indignantabout the verdict and had lodged an appeal.
The Saudi government communications office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. “This sentence is backed by no concrete proof but rests solely on the unfounded, even mendacious, allegations made by the plaintiff who didn’t even turn up himself to the trial to support them,” said Hassa’s lawyer, Emmanuel Moyne.
Saudi royalty has faced legal problems in France before. In 2013 a French court ordered that the French assets of the Saudi princess Maha al-Sudairi, wife of the former interior minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz, be seized over unpaid bills at a luxury hotel totalling almost €6m (£5.37m). “The princess was not present at any scene of violence nor did she order any act of violence … No evidence proves that the plaintiff was deprived of his freedom to come and go, especially not on the orders of the princess.”
Reuters contributed to this report Saudi state-run media often lionise Hassa, 42, as a charity worker and women’s rights campaigner, and her legal team said she had been the real vicitim.
“She has suffered two years of legal proceedings ... as well as treatment by the media that has unfairly changed how she is seen,” said Lisa Janaszewicz.
Hassa’s bodyguard has lodged a separate case for defamation against Eid. The Saudi government communications office has not commented on the case.
It is not the Saudi royal family’s first run-in with French law. A court ordered the French assets of Princess Maha al-Sudairi, the wife of the former interior minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, to be seized in 2013 over unpaid bills at a luxury hotel of almost €6m.
Nor is it the first time a member of the family has been convicted over violence toward an employee in a European court. Prince Saud Abdulaziz bin Nasser al Saud was found guilty in 2012 of killing his servant Bandar Abdulaziz at their five-star hotel suite in central London after a campaign of what was described sadistic abuse.
FranceFrance
Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia
EuropeEurope
Middle East and North AfricaMiddle East and North Africa
Paris
Emmanuel Macron
newsnews
Share on FacebookShare on Facebook
Share on TwitterShare on Twitter
Share via EmailShare via Email
Share on LinkedInShare on LinkedIn
Share on PinterestShare on Pinterest
Share on WhatsAppShare on WhatsApp
Share on MessengerShare on Messenger
Reuse this contentReuse this content