Lawyers for
a woman who alleges she was sexually assaulted by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of
Saudi Arabia say the case has not been properly handled by Spain's criminal
justice system.
 |
| The prince's spokeswoman called the allegations "salacious" and "completely and utterly false" |
The woman,
known only as "Soraya", says she was assaulted on a yacht moored off
the island of Ibiza in 2008.
A
spokeswoman for the prince denied the allegation and said he had not been to
Ibiza for more than a decade.
The case
was shelved by an island court but has now been reopened.
This
followed a successful appeal by Soraya's lawyers.
The judge
is preparing a second official request to the Saudi authorities for assistance
in formally questioning the prince.
The nephew
of Saudi King Abdullah, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is a multi-billionaire with
major investments in both Citigroup and NewsCorp.
'Something
in my drink'
"In
our opinion, the Court of Instruction No 3 in Ibiza and the police did not
follow full procedure in cases of alleged sexual abuse," the lawyers from
Madrid-based firm Turiel and Beloqui told the BBC.
"There
are things that should have been investigated that were not - like questioning
staff on the yacht and the guests, an analysis of the victim's clothes and so
on," the lawyers wrote, describing the fact these steps were not taken as
"very unusual".
The claim
that the case was not being pursued with proper rigour was dismissed by the
Ibiza court in 2010, saying that the identity of the accused in no way affected
its decision to drop the case that year. The court ruling cites insufficient
evidence to proceed.
Soraya, a
Spanish-German model, was 20 at the time of the alleged attack on 13 August
2008 on board the 117-metre luxury yacht Turama.
She told
police she had begun to feel nauseous in the VIP zone of a local night club,
where she believes something was slipped into her drink.
She had
been taken there by a man claiming to be a chauffeur for "an Arab
prince" who was visiting the island.
According
to court documents seen by the BBC, Soraya sent the chauffeur an SMS text
message at 05:12, saying: "I haven't drunk much but I think there was
something in my drink."
The model
says she came round some hours later on board the Turama to find a man on top
of her. She later identified the man as Prince Alwaleed bin Talal using images
taken from YouTube.
Forensic
reports from a medical examination the following day revealed traces of a
sedative and semen, but no physical injuries.
A woman
identifying herself as the mother of Soraya told the BBC her daughter had
called on the morning of the alleged attack asking her to come and collect her
from the island.
"My
daughter was in a terrible state, [...] scared to death, crying, awful,"
the woman said, responding to questions sent by email.
"The
Spanish justice system has treated this case very badly. In my view they did
not want to get too involved because of who the accused was."
A 2010
prosecutor's report says three men who were questioned by police during the
investigation were unable to corroborate the model's version of events "in
any way".
The Saudi
foreign ministry rejected an initial request from the Ibizan court to
investigate, citing "an inability to identify the accused and a lack of
solid evidence".
This week,
a spokeswoman for Prince Alwaleed's Kingdom Holding Company said the prince had
never been informed of the 2008 court case, or that it was eventually shelved.
In a
statement, she also said the billionaire's travel records confirm he was with
dozens of friends and family at the time of the alleged attack, nowhere near
Ibiza.
"There
have been many examples of people impersonating Prince Alwaleed over the internet
and elsewhere for their own purposes," Heba Fatani said in a statement.
She called
the allegations against him "salacious" and "completely and
utterly false".
The
Audencia Provincial court in Mallorca - which has jurisdiction over Ibiza - has
ordered the case to be reopened in order to ensure the prince can be questioned
in accordance with Spanish law.
Soraya's
lawyers have urged him to provide a DNA sample to rule himself out of the
inquiry.
Related Article:
 |
| Saud Abdulaziz bin Nasser al Saud (L) is seen with his servant Bandar Abdulaziz in an elevator in London's Landmark hotel on January 22, 2010, in closed circuit television footage which was shown during a murder trial in London on October 5, 2010. (Credit: REUTERS/Metropolitan Police/handout) |
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