Sunday Times 2
Saudi princess accused of human trafficking freed on $5 million bail
The Saudi Royal princess accused of keeping a Kenyan woman as a domestic slave posted bail of $5 million on Thursday night and is expected to be freed later in the evening.
Saudi Arabian princess Meshael Alayban, 42, behind bars, listens to a court appointed translator at an arraignment hearing in Santa Ana, California (Reuters)
Meshael Alayban, who is married to the grandson of the King of Saudi Arabia, appeared in an Orange County court in the morning dressed in a blue jumpsuit and answered the judge from behind grilled bars.
Uttering ‘yes, your honor’ several times during her time in the Santa Ana courtroom, Alayban, 42, was aided by an Arabic-speaking interpreter during the proceedings.
Alayban, 42, faces one felony count of human trafficking charges and up to 12 years in prison – she has not entered a plea yet – her arraignment is on July 29th.
As part of the conditions of her mammoth bail, Alayban will have to wear a GPS tracking device and is not allowed to leave Orange County without the court’s express permission.
She is also not allowed to try and contact the alleged victim, a 30-year-old Kenyan woman who alleges that she was held captive as a domestic slave by the princess and forced to work 16-hours a day, seven days a week for only $220 a month.
The Kenyan woman, who is now being held in a shelter, claims she escaped from the Santa Ana property where she worked for Alayban and boarded a bus where she explained her plight to a passenger who helped her phone police.
Steve Baric, the attorney for the victim who has been identified as Jane Doe, said that he was ‘gravely concerned’ for his client’s safety according to the LA Times.
Alayban is married to Abdulrahman bin Nasser bin Abdulaziz al Saud, who is the grandson of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
In addition to the Kenyan woman, police said that when officers executed a search warrant for Alayban’s home, they discovered four women from the Philippines also working in similar circumstances.
All five of the women’s passports had been confiscated and placed in a bank safe deposit box which they allegedly did not have access to.
Farrah Emami, of the Orange County District Attorney’s Office confirmed to MailOnline that Abdulaziz al Saud was in the United States on Tuesday when his wife was arrested.
They added that Alayban was arrested due to their belief a criminal case could be pursued against her.
However, they added that the investigation into the four other women was ongoing ‘to see if criminal charges are appropriate to any other individuals.’
Emami said that she believes that al Saud is still in the United States.
Meshael Alayban, 42, faces human trafficking charges and up to 12 years in prison after she allegedly held a 30-year-old Kenyan at her Orange County, California home after taking her passport from her. Alayban was arrested after the Kenyan woman carrying a suitcase flagged down a bus after escaping and tearfully told a passenger that she was a human trafficking victim.
The passenger helped the lady contact police who traveled to Alayban’s home where they found another four servants from the Philippines allegedly in similar conditions after serving a search warrant on the condo where the princess, her husband and her family lived.
The 30-year-old woman was hired through an agency in Kenya in March 2012 and her passport was allegedly taken from her on arrival in Saudi Arabia by Alayban.
Police say Alayban’s family traveled to the United States in May with the victim and four women from the Philippines. It is thought that the Saudi Arabian consulate in Los Angeles may have posted the $5 million bail and Alayban has been ordered to wear a GPS tracking device as she is considered a flight risk. ‘This is not a contract dispute,’ Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas told the court during a bail hearing on Wednesday afternoon. ‘This is holding someone captive against their will.’
Alayban’s attorney, Paul Meyer, said the case was a contractual dispute and argued his client shouldn’t be assigned a ransom-like bail solely because she was rich. He said she had been traveling to the United States since she was a child, owned properties here and had given her word she would address the allegations. The victim alleges that instead of her contracted work eight hours a day, five days a week, she instead was putting in 16 hour shifts, seven days a week on every conceivable household chore.
© Daily Mail,London
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