Saudi Princess Fined $1,000 For Alleged Abuse Of Maid

ORLANDO, Fla. -- A Saudi princess accused of pushing her maid down a flight of stairs was fined $1,000 and put on unsupervised probation in a no-contest plea accepted in court Tuesday.

Princess Buniah al-Saud is in Saudi Arabia and didn't appear at the five minute hearing in which her attorneys didn't contest a misdemeanor battery charge filed in Florida Circuit Court.

In such a plea, a defendant doesn't admit or deny guilt but agrees to a punishment. The judge who accepted the plea also ordered her to pay $131 in court fees and surcharges and to write a letter of acknowledgement to the court.

The plea marked an about-face for the 41-year-old princess who in February had promised a judge she would come back to the United States for trial, if allowed to return to Saudi Arabia, because she wanted to clear her name. The princess is a niece of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia.

"It was a good way to resolve the case for all parties,'' said Mark Schnapp, one of her attorneys. "Would we have preferred to go to trial in the long run? Yes. But at the end of the day, she's in Saudi Arabia. This will terminate the case at this point.''

Another attorney, Russell Crawford, said the princess had no immediate plans to return to the United States. But her attorneys said the plea wouldn't prevent her from returning.

Al-Saud was originally accused in December of pushing Ismiyati Suryono down 12 steps at their apartment, and was originally charged with attempted aggravated battery.

She was later accused of also forcing Suryono to work without pay, and of stealing electronic equipment from her driver and selling it.

Al-Saud settled a civil lawsuit filed by Suryono and returned to Saudi Arabia in February with a judge's permission. Terms of the civil settlement were not released.

Suryono returned home to Indonesia for her mother's funeral and was denied a visa to return to Florida on the grounds that she might try to stay in the United States illegally.

Prosecutors said that would have kept her from testifying had the state taken the case to trial.

Assistant State Attorney Mike Saunders said he was unaware of a federal law that might have allowed Suryono to return to the United States to testify in a criminal trial. The new law, part of the Violence Against Women Act, allows visas to be issued to noncitizens in some cases.

"We did not know about it,'' Saunders said. "But we were already in stages of discussion, a similar plea to what is resolving the case today. So I'm not sure we would have gone through those steps.''

Saunders said Suryono's attorney had indicated that a plea of a misdemeanor was acceptable to the maid.

Anyone have a link to that article?

Saudi princess charged in Orlando with beating servant

Wednesday, December 19, 2001

By MIKE SCHNEIDER, Associated Press

ORLANDO — After a night in jail, a Saudi princess charged with beating her servant and pushing her down a flight of stairs was freed on $5,000 bond Tuesday and told to surrender her passport.

Princess Buniah al-Saud also was charged Tuesday with grand theft and with dealing in stolen property. Investigators said she stole $6,000 worth of electronics equipment and furniture from her former chauffeur.

Princess Buniah al-Saud, right, 41-year-old niece of King Fahd, is escorted by Orange County Corrections Officer Linda Kotch to appear before Orange County Judge Janis Halker Tuesday. The princess was arrested Monday on aggravated battery charges punishable by 15 years in prison for allegedly beating her maid and pushing her down a flight of stairs. She was freed on $2,500 bail Tuesday and ordered to surrender her passport. AP photo by Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel

The niece of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, al-Saud walked out of Orange County Jail Tuesday night and was whisked away in a waiting limousine. Al-Saud, who was wearing a sleeveless shirt and pants, did not speak.

She was arrested Monday on charges of beating Memet Ismiyati, her Indonesian maid. The princess has been living in Orlando while studying English.

Al-Saud was dressed in a blue jail jumpsuit when she appeared before a judge via a video link between the jail and the Orange County Courthouse. She said nothing, but smiled brightly at the camera when the brief afternoon hearing began.

She was told to surrender her passport and to not have any contact with the maid. Her attorney, Bud Bennington, said during the hearing she would return to Washington. He did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment on the charges.

The stolen property belonged to al-Saud's former driver, Mohammed el-Biyadi, whose name was on the lease of the town house apartment where the princess was staying with Ismiyati. When el-Biyadi returned to the apartment Tuesday, he found that the townhouse's locks had been changed and most of his property missing.

Al-Saud had given the property to a neighbor and written a contract to sell it, Orange County Undersheriff Malone Stewart said. All the property was returned to el-Biyadi, who had receipts showing the items were his.

"The only speculation is that she needed money real fast," Stewart said.

Al-Saud, 41, could get up to 15 years in prison if convicted of felony battery. She faces an additional 10 years in prison for the theft and stolen property charges.

Neighbors called 911 Friday after Ismiyati, 36, ran crying from the apartment she shared with the princess. She told deputies al-Saud beat her, hit her head against a wall and pushed her down a flight of stairs, leaving her unable to walk.

"When we talked to her (Ismiyati) through an Indonesian interpreter and saw the extent of her injuries, we upgraded the charges to a felony," Stewart said.

Ismiyati told deputies she "couldn't take it anymore."

On a 911 tape released by the sheriff's office, Ismiyati can be heard crying hysterically in the background while a neighbor talks to a dispatcher.

"Help me. Help me. The boss pushed me down the stairs," Ismiyati told the dispatcher through an Indonesian translator on the telephone.

Ismiyati was treated at a hospital and released, but she was bruised badly and is walking with a cane, Sgt. Ken Mohler said.

When deputies went to the princess' apartment Friday, she denied striking or pushing the maid, according to deputies' reports.

Deputies contacted the Saudi Embassy in Washington after al-Saud told them she had diplomatic immunity and embassy officials backed her claim.

"The information that we received from the Saudi Embassy was inaccurate information," Stewart said. "The information they gave to us was not the truth."

No one answered the phone at the embassy press office Tuesday evening.

U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Tuesday that he was unaware that al-Saud had been granted diplomatic immunity, but added he didn't think the episode would affect relations between the two nations.

"I don't think we can take one case and believe that it really disrupts that whole relationship," Boucher said.

In 1995, another Saudi princess was accused of beating her servants while visiting Orlando. Princess Maha Al-Sudairi, wife of the heir to the Saudi throne, reportedly beat a servant suspected of stealing $200,000 in cash and jewelry in front of off-duty deputies providing her security. The deputies were later disciplined for not stopping the beating, not writing a report about it and not investigating a tip that another servant had been beaten.

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