A picture made on February 19, 2010 through a tinted window of a police van shows a man believed to be Saud Bin Abdulaziz Bin Nasir Bin Abdulaziz al Saud
A Saudi Prince who has admitted to beating his servant to death has denied that he was in a gay relationship with the man.
The lawyer for Saud Abdulaziz bin Nasser al Saud, a member of the Saudi royal family has denied that the prince and his assistant Bandar Abdulaziz were in a homosexual relationship. Abdulaziz was found beaten and strangled to death with bite marks on his cheeks in London’s Landmark Hotel in February. Al Saud is currently on trial at the Old Bailey for his murder.
According to previous testimony at the trial, al Saud often physically abused Abdulaziz, including an incident weeks before the murder in the Landmark’s elevators captured by the hotel’s CCTV that left Abdulaziz markedly scarred. (The Prince first alleged his servants scars were the result of a robbery.)
New witness accounts have described the pair as a gay couple. Dobomir Dimitrov, a porter at the Landmark who is himself gay, has testified that he knew the two men were gay from the way they color-coded their clothing. Of Abdulaziz, he said, “It was impossible not to notice that he was homosexual.”
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Al Saud’s lawyer, John Kelsey-Fry, denied the allegations during cross examination. As he explained to Dimitrov, “It is not accepted that this was in fact a gay couple — but I readily accept that you had the impression they were a gay couple.”
The British tabloid media has jumped at the charges. The Daily Mirror states that al Saud killed Abdulaziz “in a sexual fury” and mentions that the Prince brought gay escorts to his hotel room. (NewsFeed, of course, would never write a thing like that.)
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Al Saud has admitted to killing Abdulaziz but denies the charges of murder and an additional count of greivous bolidy harm with intent. The jury at the trial has been tasked with deciding whether the Prince is guilty of murder or manslaughter. (via BBC News)