A longstanding dispute between a Saudi prince and a Christian woman who claims to have been secretly married to his father, the late King Fahd, is to be aired in court on Thursday.
Janan Harb, 65, claims Prince Abdul Aziz Bin Fahd agreed in 2003 to uphold his father’s promise that she be looked after financially with £12 million ($18 million) and two central London apartments.
But Harb, a British citizen, says she has never received the money or the properties and is suing Abdul Aziz for breach of contract in the UK High Court.
The five-day hearing is set to expose intimate details of life inside the former King of Saudi Arabia’s royal ‘harem’ as well as the family’s private business dealings.
Over the past few years the prince has battled to prevent the dispute from reaching the courts by claiming “state immunity” from the British legal system.
However, his plea was rejected by the High Court last June. He is believed to have asked for permission to appeal to the UK’s Supreme Court, but that does not stop Harb’s case from being heard in the meantime.
She claims to have secretly married King Fahd in 1968 when she was 19, but was exiled to the UK before he ascended to the throne in 1982 – supposedly because of her Christian-Palestinian heritage.
The late king allegedly made a promise in the early 1990s to look after her financially. Five years later he had a stroke that put him into coma for the best part of a decade.
After his death in 2005, Harb made representations to his family to secure the assets she claims she was promised. It is understood that at the time the king’s estate was managed by Abdul Aziz.
According to court documents seen by Arabian Business, the prince agreed to uphold his father’s promise during a meeting with Harb at the Dorchester Hotel in London in 2003.
Harb will claim this week that a third party was present at the meeting and witnessed the oral contract between her and the Prince. That person is expected to give evidence at the trial.
If Harb does not win the money she says she is owed, she has threatened to publish an account of her time with Saudi Arabia’s highly secretive royal family.
She said after the ruling last year that permitted her to bring her case: “After 12 years of persistence I am very happy and relieved.
“If the prince is going to appeal, I am going to accept the offer of the movie of the book I have written – I am going to spill the beans.”
It is understood that Abdul Aziz could be found liable to pay Harb more than the £12 million and two properties she is asking for.
Interest would be calculated on top, as well as a sum amounting to 15 years of lost rental on the two flats, which are thought to be worth at least £5 million each and command weekly rents of around £6,000, according to a source.
In addition, Harb is expected to claim damages for dental and medical treatments she says she could not afford because of the dispute. She claims to have suffered chronic tooth and back pain as a result.
The total value of assets owed to Harb if she wins the case could easily exceed £25 million ($40 million), sources say.
The prince is not expected to appear in court over the next five days and is not believed to have any witnesses.
All parties declined to comment.
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