/ 13 August 2001

SAUDI PRINCESS CLEARED OF SPENDING SALARIES

A SISTER-in-law of Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd, who is frequently in legal trouble in Egypt, was acquitted of charges she spent the salaries of around 50 of her employees, legal sources said on Sunday. A Cairo misdemeanours court found Princess Hind al-Fassi and her nephew Mohammed al-Fassi innocent on Saturday because the plaintiffs had no employment contracts, the sources said. The princess, who lives in the luxury Ramses Hilton hotel in central Cairo, was accused of having received money for their salaries from her husband Turki bin Abdel Aziz but instead spent the money on herself. Another Egyptian court in February sentenced the princess to three years’ hard labour for a million-dollar jewel theft, but the sentence cannot take effect because she was absent from the proceedings. – AFP

Sunday August 12, 2001