Saudi Arabian Princess Charged With Human Trafficking After A Domestic Slave At Her Orange County Condo Managed To Escape

 

Bail has been set at $5 million for a Saudi Arabian princess after she was charged with holding a servant hostage against her will on Wednesday.

According to Daily mail, Meshael Alayban, 42, faces human trafficking charges and up to 12 years in prison after she allegedly held a 30-year-old Kenyan at her Orange County, California home after taking her passport from her.

Alayban was arrested after the Kenyan woman carrying a suitcase flagged down a bus after escaping and tearfully told a passenger that she was a human trafficking victim.

The passenger helped the lady contact police who traveled to Alayban's home where they found another four servants from the Philippines in similar conditions after serving a search warrant on the condo where the princess, her husband and her family lived.

The 30-year-old woman was hired through an agency in Kenya in March 2012 and her passport was taken from her on arrival in Saudi Arabia by Alayban - who is married to a member of the ruling al-Saud family of Saudi Arabia, which has up to five thousand members.

Police say Alayban's family traveled to the United States in May with the victim and four women from the Philippines.

In court details released today it is claimed that Alayban is one of the wives of Saudi Arabian Prince Abdul Rahman bin Nasser bin Abdulaziz al Saud.

The Saudi Arabian consulate in Los Angeles has indicated they will pay the bail and Alayban has been ordered to wear a GPS tracking device as she is considered a flight risk.

'This is not a contract dispute,' Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas told the court during a bail hearing on Wednesday afternoon. 'This is holding someone captive against their will.'

Alayban did not appear in court. Her attorney, Paul Meyer, said the case was a contractual dispute and argued his client shouldn't be assigned a ransom-like bail solely because she was rich. He said she had been traveling to the United States since she was a child, owned properties here and had given her word she would address the allegations.

'This is a domestic work hours dispute,' he said.

Rackauckas had originally asked the judge to deny bail for Alayban or set it at $20 million, saying it was unlikely any amount would guarantee a Saudi princess would show up in court.

The victim was working 'around the clock' for the family cooking, cleaning and caring for children, said Irvine police chief David Maggard Jr. She had been promised wages of $1,600 a month but was paid only about $200 a month, Rackauckas said.

The victims alleges that instead of her contracted work eight hours a day, five days a week, she instead was putting in 16 hour shifts, seven days a week on every conceivable household chore.

The Kenyan lady also said that she was working abroad to pay for her daughter's medical bills.