A Spanish judge has reopened an abandoned sexual assault case against a Saudi prince who is one of the world’s richest men, reviving accusations that he raped a 20-year-old model on a luxury yacht in the Spanish Mediterranean in August 2008.
Fahad Shadeed/Reuters
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz al-Saud in Riyadh.
The prince, Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, a nephew of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, is the largest individual stakeholder in Citigroup and, among his other major holdings, is the second largest investor in the News Corporation. Forbes valued his fortune this year at $19.4 billion, making him the 26th richest man in the world and the single richest in the Arab world.
The accuser did not go public, and the original complaint appears to have remained largely unknown. The case was quietly closed in July 2010 for what a judge on the Mediterranean resort island of Ibiza called a lack of evidence. But on appeal, a Spanish provincial court for the Balearic Islands, which has jurisdiction over Ibiza, ordered the judge to resume investigating and to summon the prince to appear.
The provincial court said the judge, Carmen Martín Montero, was on vacation and could not be reached for comment.
Heba Fatani, a spokeswoman for Prince Alwaleed’s investment arm, the Kingdom Holding Company, called the accusations “completely and utterly false.”
“The alleged encounter simply never happened,” Ms. Fatani said in a statement.
Ms. Fatani also said the prince was never in Ibiza in 2008 and provided pages of his calendar indicating that he spent time that summer in Paris; Cannes, France; and Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. He did not charter a yacht in Ibiza, nor did he take his own there, she said. Other people who spent time with the prince that summer can confirm his whereabouts, she said.
Prince Alwaleed first learned of the 2008 case on Tuesday, Ms. Fatani said, and his lawyers had not been informed about it.
Son of a gadfly senior prince, Talal ibn Abd al-Aziz, Prince Alwaleed has long been outspoken about expanding opportunities for women in the kingdom. The women who work in his Saudi offices are not segregated, nor do they have to wear the enveloping blackabayas — his royal stature keeps them out of reach of the religious police who enforce such measures.
The model, whose lawyer has identified her by only her middle name, Soraya, filed a police complaint in August 2008, saying the prince had raped her on the yacht after she was drugged. She said she had been invited to the yacht at an Ibiza nightclub.
The Balearic archipelago is one of the most popular vacation destinations in the Mediterranean and welcomes a flotilla of luxury yachts during the summer months.
According to a summary of a provincial court’s order to reopen the case, medical tests conducted by departments of Spain’s National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Science turned up traces of semen and a sleep-inducing chemical, nordazepam, in her urine.
In the 2010 decision to close the case, the Ibiza judge said the forensic and medical tests had shown no signs of physical violence that could confirm a rape. The judge also questioned whether the sleep-inducing chemical found in the model’s body could have acted swiftly enough to induce a semiconscious state between the time she left the nightclub and reached the yacht.
Her lawyer, Javier Beloqui, said the tests supported her claim that her drink had been spiked and that she was sexually assaulted. He called on Prince Alwaleed to provide at least a DNA test in order to compare it with the traces of semen found.
Mr. Beloqui welcomed the decision to reopen the case. “Nobody was even questioned at the time,” he said, “which is unbelievable when you consider the seriousness of the crime and the evidence that has been gathered.”
With more than 3,000 fans cheering, a hulking, black-and-white fighting bull named "Mouse" chased one daredevil runner after another, trying to flip them airborne and skewer them as he did a month ago in a fatal goring that enshrined his reputation as Spain's most feared and famous beast. Mouse was greeted in the southeastern farm town of Sueca like a rock star: Everyone stood up at 2 a.m. Sunday in the bull ring's grandstands as he charged across the sand after loudspeakers introduced him with the eerie strains of the soundtrack to "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly," the 1960s spaghetti western film starring a young Clint Eastwood. The 550-kilogram (1,213-pound) bull didn't claim any more victims this time, but tried his hardest to gore runners. And he captured intense media coverage in what could be his last appearance before retirement amid the controversy he has generated about Spain's summertime tradition of bull versus human runs, a pastime that plays out in rings, narrow streets and plazas across the nation. After running with Mouse, a breathless Julian Herroja said the bull is so dangerous that "if you make a mistake, he won't. You'll be a victim for sure." More than 30 journalists were on hand to cover the event in Sueca, population 28,000, near the beach destination of Valencia. Though Mouse will make one more appearance before the end of his season this year, he will run around the ring without runners. Mouse's owner now fends off as many as 60 cell phone calls daily from reporters. Facebook pages dedicated to him include comments from some people praising him for taking revenge against humans in a country where slews of bulls are slain every year in bullfights by matadors. But de Jesus is angry that Mouse has been nicknamed "Killer Bull," saying he gets blame for doing what comes naturally: Defending himself against perceived threats. "We go to entertain people so they'll have fun, but unfortunately they are fighting bulls, and there is always a percentage of risk," said de Jesus, 42, a former bull fighter who raises 70 specially bred bulls and 300 cows. The hype about Mouse has grown so much in Spain that de Jesus is forced to deny reports that the 11-year-old Mouse has killed as many as five runners during his career. But in addition to the 29-year-old victim Aug. 14 in the town of Xativa, he killed a 56-year-old man in 2006 and has seriously injured five more people over the years. Mouse got his name because no one ever expected him to turn into such a raging bull, de Jesus said. As a calf, he was tormented by several youths who broke into his pen and exhausted him almost to death. Then he was nearly fatally gored by another bull at de Jesus' ranch. Critics and bull run aficionados alike agree that security is lax at many small town bull runs, meaning almost anyone can participate — even if they're drunk, have taken drugs or aren't physically fit enough to sprint away from enraged bulls. Sueca's mayor beefed up security Sunday, and the extra contingent of police took away some suspected drunks during Mouse's run. After the bull's last deadly goring, Valencia's regional government announced plans to study how police can be given more authority to detain runners who shouldn't be in the ring, while stressing that the overall number of bull run injuries in the region where they run dropped to 486 in 2010 from 676 in 2008. Hector Benet, an insurance agent for the bull run industry, said the number of deaths each year in the region averages four, with dozens of serious injuries annually. While bulls in the runs aren't killed or bloodied like their counterparts in bullfights, animal rights groups say the events are a form of animal torture, with bulls terrified by the hundreds of people who taunt the animals by yelling at them, poking them with long sticks and tossing sand from the plaza at them. "Mouse is the proof that the bull runs are barbaric and medieval," said Leonardo Anselmi of PROU, the animal rights group whose signature-collecting campaign led to a bullfighting ban in Catalonia, which neighbors Valencia. "It's excessive and cruel violence. The culprits are the politicians who allow the bull runs." But after Catalonia banned bullfighting, politicians there put in protections for other bull-related traditions, including "correbous" — when metal rods with flaming balls of wax or fireworks are attached to bulls' horns before they are let loose to run around bull rings or plazas and chase people. It's all part of Spain's centuries-old fascination with bulls, with animals used in public as a test of bravery and part of the national identity. Spaniards also run with bulls in northern Pamplona every year, spear them to death from horseback in a town called Tordesillas and cordon off town squares to let children dodge feisty calves bred to become top-fighter bulls. Sueca's mayor, Salvador Campillo, was torn on whether to let Mouse perform in his small city after this year's fatal goring by the bull. In the end, he decided to go ahead because he's a bull run fan. "Raton is a bull that gives a great show, he never stops," Campillo said with a smile. The town's annual end of summer party also features an international paella cooking competition in place since 1961. The contest attracted chefs this year from top restaurants from Spain and France, plus one from Chicago. Campillo said de Jesus told him that the Sueca event would be Mouse's last real run before retirement, but de Jesus insisted he won't decide until next year whether Mouse will be put to pasture to breed "some little Mouses" with a chance of inheriting the bull's agility, aggression, intelligence and speed. Mouse's eventual retirement will probably prove lucrative for his owner, Campillo said, because cow owners who want mating privileges with the bull may have to pay as much as €3,000 ($4,145) for each use of his services.
