Saudi crown prince's sister to be tried in France in July: AFP
A French court will hear a criminal case against the sister of Saudi Arabia's powerful crown prince Mohammed bin Salman next month, AFP news agency reported.
The hearing is expected to be held in Paris on 9 July, the news agency said on Wednesday, citing an unidentified judicial source.
Hassa bint Salman is accused of ordering her bodyguard to beat up a plumber who was doing work inside her Paris apartment in 2016, AFP said.
Bint Salman is expected to face the charges in absentia, the news agency reported.
According to AFP, the plumber was called to bint Salman's apartment in the 16th arrondissement [district] of Paris in September 2016.
The plumber said he took a photograph of the room in which he was going to be working, and that's when he said he was accused of taking pictures to sell to the media.
The Saudi princess ordered her bodyguard to hit him, the worker alleged.
He said he was beaten and humiliated, AFP reported, adding that bint Salman's bodyguard ordered him to get on his knees, with his arms tied, and kiss the princess's feet.
He was held in the apartment for several hours before being allowed to leave, the worker said.
"We have to kill him, this dog. He doesn't deserve to live," bint Salman said, according to the worker's account of the incident, as reported by French newspaper Le Point.
France issued an arrest warrant for bint Salman in March 2018.
Last August, a French judge ordered the princess to go before a court on several criminal charges, AFP reported, citing a judicial source.
The charges are: complicity in a violent act involving the use or threat of a weapon, complicity in holding someone against his will and theft of a cell phone.
For his part, bint Salman's bodyguard is facing charges of theft, committing a violent act involving the use or threat of a weapon, and holding someone against his will, AFP said.
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