Prince Alwaleed's Visit of Pakistan, 2005
This weekend, Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal released several documents to the media which refute allegations that he raped a young model aboard his yacht docked in Ibiza, Spain in August 2008. Last week, a Spanish court re-opened the case which was originally closed due to a lack of evidence. The documents Prince Alwaleed’s private office sent to Royalty in the News include a scan of his passport, which is marked for France in August 2008, and scans of yacht navigation logs, again showing Alwaleed’s yacht, Kingdom 5-KR, was not ever docked in Spain during that time. The Prince’s private office also released statement from Heba Fatani, the Sr Executive Manager of the Corporate Communications department of Kingdom Holding Company. Fatani is quoted as saying Alwaleed was with his wife, Princess Ameerah, and daughter, Princess Reem, at the time and was also surrounded by French security while being in multiple public places in France. In addition, Fatani says, “While the Prince is a committed advocate for women and has empathy for any assault victim, he was simply not present” in Ibiza as the alleged victim claims. Also speaking out is Alwaleed’s wife, Princess Ameerah. According to the AFP, she has said this about the rape allegations: “I was with my husband outside of Spain the day these allegations took place in Ibiza.” “Quite simply we were not there. We were together in the French city of Cannes. I was with him all the time, and we were with at least 30 people,” she said. “Hundreds of witnesses can confirm that we were in Cannes, just as there are dozens of proofs that we were not in Ibiza in 2008.” The reason why this case has been reopened is because a provincial court overturned the ruling to close the case, and an Ibiza court wanted to formally request assistance from the Saudi authorities to take a statement.
