Saudi Prince guilty of murdering servant

LONDON - A Saudi prince who battered his manservant to death is facing a life sentence after he was convicted of murder in a trial at the Old Bailey.

The case has shone an uncomfortable spotlight on the privileged lives led by many of Saudi Arabia's royalty outside of the kingdom.

Prince Saud Abdulaziz bin Nasser al-Saud, a grandson of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah through his mother, was found guilty of murdering Bandar Abdulaziz with whom he had a gay and abusive relationship.

The jury took just 95 minutes to reach its verdict following the two-week trial which heard how the 34-year-old prince led a playboy lifestyle outside of Saudi Arabia fuelled by champagne, fine dining, holidays and male escorts.

The badly beaten body of Mr Abdulaziz was discovered on 15 February lying in the prince's bed at the Landmark Hotel near Regents Park, an area of London popular with wealthy Arab Elites.

Prince Abdulaziz claimed that he had simply woken up to find his manservant dead but the court heard how he had in fact regularly abused his lover and treated him "like a slave".

The Old Bailey had heard that the murder of Mr Abdulaziz was the final act in a "deeply abusive" master-servant relationship in which the prince carried out frequent attacks on his aide "for his own personal gratification".

A post-mortem examination found that Mr Abdulaziz had suffered heavy blows to the head, injuries to the brain and ears and severe neck injuries consistent with strangulation by hand, the trial heard.

During the trial, the jury was also shown CCTV footage taken inside the hotel of the prince launching an attack on his manservant in one of the lifts in what prosecutors said was symptomatic of a "sadistic" campaign against the prince's servant, who came from a lowly background compared to his master.

Throughout the trial the prince maintained his innocence and spent much of his defence trying to persuade the court that he was not gay.

During pre-trial bail hearings his lawyers argued that he would face execution if were ever to return to Saudi Arabia where both society and the country's sharia system is staunchly intolerant of homosexuality.

All attempts to have bail granted - including a proposal from his defence to have a private company guard the prince - were rejected by the court, which believed he was too much of a flight risk.

During the trial the jury heard how the prince had phoned a mysterious contact in Saudi Arabia trying to decide how to cover up the murder. Following his arrest the Saudi authorities said that the prince was covered by diplomatic immunity, but that claim was rejected by the Foreign Office.

Those involved in investigating the case also said they faced a wall of silence from the Saudi authorities. Requests for information about the backgrounds of the prince and his servant went unanswered.

Speaking outside the court after the verdict, Detective Chief Inspector John McFarlane said: "The defendant used his position of power, money and authority over Bandar to abuse him over an extended period of time. This verdict clearly shows no one, regardless of their position, is above the law."

- INDEPENDENT