Saudi Prince Loses Court Claim with King Fahd 'Wife'
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
A Saudi prince lost an early round of a multi-million pound British court battle on Monday against a woman who claims she was married to his late father King Fahd.
Prince Abdul Aziz bin Fahd argued his father had "state immunity" and that the English High Court had no jurisdiction to hear Janan Harb's claim that the former Saudi ruler owed her millions of pounds.
But judge Vivien Rose ruled King Fahd's immunity had expired upon his death in 2005 as he ceased to be head of state.
Harb threatened to "spill the beans" on the Saudi royal family if Abdul Aziz appealed the decision.
"After 12 years of persistence I am very happy and relieved," Harb told reporters after Monday's ruling.
"If the prince is going to appeal, I am going to accept the offer of the movie of the book I have written. I am going to spill the beans."
Born to a Christian Palestinian family, Harb is now a British national.
She says she was secretly married to Fahd in 1968 when she was 19 and he was a prince and the interior minister, Rose said.
Harb claimed Fahd, who became king in 1982, had promised to provide for her financially for the rest of her life.
She claims Abdul Aziz told her in 2003 that he was prepared to honor the terms of his father's promise, and had offered to give her £12 million ($20.2 million, 14.8 million euros) plus the deeds to two central London properties.
She took legal action after claiming she had received neither the money nor the properties.
Rose said Abdul Aziz had made no response to "the accuracy or otherwise" of Harb's claims, only contesting the jurisdiction of the court.
The judge said a letter from the Saudi embassy in London explained that the kingdom supported the prince's claim of state immunity for his father.
Little is known about King Fahd's private life, but he was known to have had multiple wives.
Abdul Aziz was not at the hearing.
A spokesman for Harb's lawyer said: "Mrs. Harb is passionate about sharing her personal account of what it is truly like to be married to a Saudi king and believes the exposure will be of public interest.
"Her story has received international interest from film producers and she is currently in detailed discussions to progress the adaptation of her book into a film."
10 June 2014, 01:25
01
says the filthy by product of the dahya's most popular muta addicted whores.
10 June 2014, 16:01
00
what 12 million pounds you are talking aboutwill bring them to their knees. maybe you don't know that more than 100 billion dollar left over as inheritage
10 June 2014, 17:07
00
Mrs. Harb seems to prove the old adage that one can't marry a Saudi king without being a high-priced whore. The whole lawsuit is just a commercial to raise the bidding price for the film rights to her sultry novel that, in order for it to be bought by Hollywood, has to contain the sorts of interesting things that a Saudi king is too boring to have done in real life.
And not that I am a fan of the dictator-dynasty that rules the country with one of the most dismal Human rights records in the 21st Century, but little prince there needs to get a better legal adviser than the Saudi judiciary. Any court that sentences a woman to beheading by sword on a count of witchcraft is not the best that your money can buy.
