The princess was arrested in a local hotel
Posted on 12/19/2001 6:09:43 PM PST by Shermy
We don't care where you're from - you just can't do this sort of thing in this country -Jim Solomons, Orange County police
A Saudi princess studying English at a Florida university has been charged with beating up her maid and stealing electronic equipment worth around $6,000.
The maid of Princess Buniah al-Saud, a 41-year-old niece of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd, said her employer beat her, smashed her head against a wall and pushed her down a flight of stairs in their apartment.
Neighbours called police after the maid, Memet Ismiyati, came crying and injured from the building.
After being arrested and held one night in prison, the princess was released on bail of $5,000 and ordered to surrender her passport.
She is being charged with aggravated battery - which can carry a 15-year prison sentence - as well as theft and dealing in stolen property.
Police said several items, including a large-screen television, were missing from the apartment, which was leased to the princess by her chauffeur, Mohammed El Biyadi. The goods were later found in the homes of neighbours, who told police they had bought them from Princess Buniah.
"Apparently the princess had sold pretty much all the contents of that apartment," said police spokesman Jim Solomons. "She was, in fact, planning to leave the country."
Previous cases
The princess, who denies the charges, spent her night in prison at Orange County Jail. She appeared briefly before a judge in a blue prison outfit as bail was set.
Ms Ismiyati was treated at an Orange County hospital
By surrendering her passport, she has effectively lost the right to leave the country until the case is decided. According to the US immigration services, the princess is not entitled to diplomatic immunity because she was not in the country fulfilling a diplomatic function.
This is not the first time a Saudi princess has been caught in a bind over maid beating in Florida. In 1995, another Saudi princess, Princess Maha al-Sudairi, wife of the heir to the throne, was accused of beating a servant in Orange County whom she suspected of stealing $200,000 from her.
No charges were filed.
Princess Buniah is also the second princess this year to fall foul of foreign authorities. In February, another Saudi royal, Princess Hind al-Fassi, was found guilty in absentia by an Egyptian court of not paying for more than $1m worth of jewellery from a Cairo jewellery shop.
The princess was arrested in a local hotel
Ms Ismiyati was treated at an Orange County hospital
who does she think she is? mrs bill klinton???
Before, or after, beating him to a pulp?
A princess with a cop badge? I bet the "maid" was a slave and the princess figured it was her cultural right to beat her. We're supposed to have cultural diversity now and understand this.
Hmmm...maybe both.
Personally, I like Predator versus Alien...but then, that's another subject entirely.
Oh, yeah...and then have huge lapses of memory (with provisions in the contract giving her the money that if she says a word, she doesn't get a cent).
One of my friends who saw this story said the grey jail jumpsuit did absolutely nothing for the Princess--but her hair looks good--and that's 50% of the battle if one is to be photographed coming out of a holding cell.
Methinks that the Saudi men send the b!tchie$t of their "princesses" out of their country in order to save their own sanity...
Didn't the Saudis execute some Philippino maids in the last couple of years? Don't remember what crime they'd committed.
Let's see ... 41 years old...married?... alone...ensconced in a university, allegedly to learn something...Does sound like they were trying to dump a problem child. How about the selling off of her chaufeur's things to raise cash?? Running short? Need to fence some items to get dough to buy nose candy?????
MANY WHO KNOW HER SAY SARAH Balabagan is sweetly innocent, a child quite unprepared for the cruel situation she faced in a strange land, more than 7,000 km from home. Only 15, barely able to read or write, and unwise to the ways of the world, says her mother, she felt driven by a single ambition: to rescue her family from the poverty and hunger of their life in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. So 17 months ago, she defied her parents' wishes and, after lying about her age, flew to the United Arab Emirates' sheikdom of Abu Dhabi to work as a domestic servant.
But Balabagan's dream of fortune and adventure was a mirage that dissolved into a bleak reality. Last month she was sentenced to death by firing squad for stabbing her employer after he allegedly raped her.
The case caused an international uproar. Human-rights and women's groups from Berlin to Kuala Lumpur joined Philippine President Fidel Ramos in showering the U.A.E. government with protests and appeals for clemency. Women demanding Sarah's freedom marched daily outside the U.A.E. embassy near Manila.
All the protests, however, had an impact. Sheik Zayed bin Sultan an-Nahyan, the President of the United Arab Emirates, a federation of seven sheikdoms, intervened in the case, and late last week the victim's family agreed to settle for compensation in the form of the payment of an undisclosed amount of "blood money"--an age-old Bedouin method of solving disputes among clans. The Islamic court then revoked the death sentence against the girl.
Despite the settlement, the case cast a spotlight on a dark practice throughout the Arabian peninsula: an almost medieval system of servitude that each year turns thousands of young women from underdeveloped Asian countries into virtual slaves for prosperous Arab families. The women are frequently lured to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the lesser emirates and sultanates by shady "employment agents" who offer them attractive-sounding jobs at relatively high pay. Once there, they learn that much of the money they initially earn--the going rate is $100 to $150 a month--goes to pay for their airfare and the employment agent's fee.
Worse, the maids find themselves in virtual bondage to their employers, who almost without exception confiscate the servants' passports to prevent them from walking out before fulfilling their typical two-year contract. It is common for the maids to be forced to work from dawn to midnight, seven days a week. Often they are fed scraps and leftovers, are beaten and verbally abused and, in the worst cases, raped and murdered. Only in the most egregious instances is an employer ever charged with sexual abuse or assault...[More at link above]
Video of the maid shows she clearly had the sh#@%t beat out of her; bruised and bloody, and barely able to walk, she was crying hysterically right after it happened.
Anyone in the hospitality industry knows this happens far more than it is reported around here. Orlando is a favorite spot for Saudi royals. Their behavior is atrocious. This princess must have been short on cash to have been living where she was, as most of them stay out at Disney hotels because Disney has its own police force (Reedy Creek). Things that happen at Disney are rarely reported in the press as for some very odd kink in the law, Disney crime records are sealed to the public. It was a miracle that the 1998 incident was reported in the press. I guess it had something to do with the off duty Orange County police officers who witnessed the incident. They were later disciplined for their lack of action when that particular Saudi "princess" beat the hell our of her servant in front of them. I hope they throw the book at this one. These people need to learn they can't get away with their illegal barbarous behavior in our country.
I don't think so. According to today's Jakarta post, she's Indonesian. Also, her name sounds Javanese. My wife almost shares the same name, Ismawati.
As for badly treating maids, this certainly doesn't stop with Saudi. I'd say 10-20 percent of all maids (servants) are either physically or mentally abused.
I'm lucky enough to have 2 brilliant maids at the moment, one live in and 1 live out. They are sisters and if you are interested in the average salary in Indonesia. Per month = $20-30.
most wealthy people (i'm not) have drivers too. Average per month= $50-70.
The reason I would never have a driver, is I LOVE driving here. It is a brilliant BUZZ.
Good night:-)
ORLANDO, Florida (AP) -- A Saudi princess was sued by her Indonesian maid on Wednesday who claims she was physically and mentally traumatized by Princess Buniah al-Saud.
An attorney for Ismiyati Suryono filed the lawsuit against the princess, seeking an undisclosed amount of money in punitive damages in Florida Circuit Court.
"She has been the victim of assault and battery and has suffered physically and emotionally," said Russell Troutman, the attorney.
Al-Saud, a niece of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, was charged Monday with felony battery for allegedly hitting Suryono's head against a wall and pushing her down a staircase. Suryono is currently walking with a cane.
Al-Saud also was charged Tuesday with grand theft and dealing in stolen property for allegedly trying to sell electronics equipment and furniture belonging to a former driver. She is free on a $5,000 bond.
Her attorney, Bud Bennington, didn't return a phone call seeking comment.
In the lawsuit, Suryono accused al-Saud of hitting her several times during her employment. Suryono also said al-Saud had choked her once and verbally abused her.
The princess also purposely withheld wages from Suryono at different periods to keep her from escaping, according to the lawsuit.
Suryono was very vulnerable -- being in a foreign country, not knowing the language and having a "meek disposition," the lawsuit said.
The maid had "nowhere to go but to continue to endure repeated if not daily acts of violence by the defendant," the lawsuit said.
The princess had been living in Orlando while studying English.
During a bond hearing, she was told to surrender her passport and not to have any contact with the maid. Her attorney said she would return to Washington.
Al-Saud, 41, could get up to 15 years in prison if convicted of felony battery. She faces an additional 10 years in prison for the theft and stolen property charges.
Jakarta, sounds like you're in an interesting place in life. Could tell us about the reaction there to 911. Maybe post some info on your profile page about living in Indonesia.
Also, I'm curious as to the local reaction, if any, To Osama's video statement about Indonesia, the one released Nov. 3. Particularly:
"Let us examine the stand of the West and the United Nations in the developments in Indonesia when they moved to divide the largest country in the Islamic world in terms of population.
This criminal, Kofi Annan, was speaking publicly and putting pressure on the Indonesian government, telling it: You have 24 hours to divide and separate East Timor from Indonesia. Otherwise, we will be forced to send in military forces to separate it by force.
The crusader Australian forces were on Indonesian shores, and in fact they landed to separate East Timor, which is part of the Islamic world.
Therefore, we should view events not as separate links, but as links in a long series of conspiracies, a war of annihilation in the true sense of the word.
And, we are told that Western Civilization is the problem. Geez!
Saudi princess is sued by maid
By Susan Clary | Sentinel Staff Writer Posted December 20, 2001
A woman who filed a lawsuit in Circuit Court on Wednesday against the Saudi Arabian princess she waited on for three years described the relationship to her Winter Park attorney as one of slave and master.
In addition to cooking, cleaning and laundering clothes, Ismiyati Memet Suryono said she stayed by Princess Buniah al-Saud 24 hours a day. She stood at the shower to open and close the curtain when the princess bathed, she said, and was not allowed to close her bedroom door at night in case the princess needed her.
"Whatever in the world the princess wanted, she had to do," said attorney Russell Troutman. "Whenever the princess had a whim, she had to comply."
Al-Saud, the niece of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, was arrested Monday night on charges she beat Suryono on Friday and pushed her down a flight of stairs. On Tuesday, the princess was accused of stealing from her former driver and selling his TV and other property for $6,000.
Suryono, 36, who had been named in police reports as Memet Ismiyati, is seeking more than $15,000 in damages for the emotional and physical abuse she alleges she suffered at the hands al-Saud, and for back pay she said the princess owes her, court records show.
She has requested the case be heard by a judge rather than a jury.
Al-Saud was released Tuesday after posting $5,000, and Russell Crawford, the criminal defense attorney who represented her at her bond hearing, thinks she has left for Washington. An Orange County judge had given her permission to travel there.
The princess had been living in Orange County while attending the University of Central Florida to learn English through the ASPECT International Language Academies. Troutman said Suryono had not told him whether she attended classes with her or waited outside.
Bud Bennington, al-Saud's civil attorney, did not return calls Wednesday.
Troutman said late Wednesday that he hired an investigator to track down the princess to serve her with the lawsuit, which uses her full name, Her Royal Highness Princess Buniah Bint Saud Bin Abdulaziz al-Saud. She is the daughter of one of the Saudi Arabian king's brothers.
Through an Indonesian interpreter, Suryono told Troutman Wednesday that she worked for the princess in Saudi Arabia, where she was paid the equivalent of $160 a week. The princess raised her salary to $200 a week when they moved to Central Florida but deducted for some meals and other things, Suryono said.
On a 911 tape released Tuesday by the Orange County Sheriff's Office, Suryono, who has an 18-year-old son in Indonesia, told an interpreter that she was promised $400 a month before they left for America. On the tape, she told the interpreter she had to pay for her own meals when they ate at Olive Garden and when they stayed in a $400-a-night hotel in Orlando, the princess made her pay for things she could not afford.
The 911 tape is more than two hours long and reveals the frustration of language and cultural differences. Dispatch operators and deputy sheriffs had a difficult time understanding the situation, and Suryono, who was upset, had a hard time explaining. Troutman said that for these reasons, he was shielding his client from the media. He said she is shy and he wants to protect her.
According to a complaint filed Wednesday, the princess beat Suryono during a period of months, culminating in the assault on Friday at the Towne Place apartments in Hunter's Creek, where the women shared an apartment. Suryono was transported to Florida Hospital in Kissimmee, where she was treated and released.
She is said to be staying with a friend now, after being counseled by a victim's advocate.
The lawsuit claims Suryono had not been paid wages for several months, she did not speak English, she had no place to go but to "continue to endure repeated if not daily acts of violence." The lawsuit said Suryono, at 4 feet, 11 inches tall and 100 pounds, could not defend herself.
"I have never seen such a submissive, sublimating woman," Troutman said. "She was ignorant of our system and no one told her there was a remedy."
I have had a couple of very ugly confrontations with Muslim women in the past year. The dirty little secret of Islam is that it works because the women embrace it - I have never seen hatred like that which simmers in the heart of a Muslim woman.
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