From www.gather.com
October 23, 2010
A Saudi Prince convicted of murder fought hard to hide his gay sex life during his trail. In his home country for being gay he could be executed. Being tried for beating and killing his manservant in a London luxury hotel, British prosecutors insisted on exposing the sexual nature of the crime and the Prince spent an lot of time avoid in homosexuality.
The 34 year old Prince Saud bin Abdulaziz bin Nasir al Saud, admitted he assaulted Bandar Abdulaziz, his manservant, but denied murdering him. The prince said about 3 weeks prior, his manservant had been beaten and robbed of 3,000 euros in Edgware Road and this was probably what led to his death. However, evidence admitted at trial included security surveillance film of the prince beating Bandar in the hotel elevator and Bandar not fighting back then following the prince out in a subdued fashion.
Evidence of the secret homosexual life of the prince arose through all phases of the trail because it was intertwined throughout the prince’s activities. According to the BBC, evidence of the prince’s sex life included two male escorts who testified they had performed sex acts on the prince and a gay hotel porter who described the prince and his manservant as a gay couple. It is important to note the manservant was found beaten to death in the bed of the prince and they always slept together.
The Saudi prince convicted of murder obviously led a gay lifestyle, but the over all question remains, should the fact of his homosexuality have played such a prominent role in the prosecutor’s case in the court room? Taking into account the sexual nature of the murder, (body in the bed, bite marks on the victim’s face, etc.) was it part of the prosecutor’s intention to use just the fact the prince was gay as a way to further lower the court’s image of the man?
