Human trafficking charge for princess

LOS ANGELES - Agence France-Presse

REUTERS Photo

A Saudi princess was to be released from US jail on bail on July 11 after being charged with enslaving a Kenyan woman, forcing her to work in abusive conditions and withholding her passport.

Meshael Alayban, 42, one of six wives of a grandson of the Saudi King Abdullah, paid a $5 million bond and surrendered her passport, the Orange County, California district attorney’s office said in a statement.

She “is required to wear a GPS tracking device, is prohibited from leaving Orange County without permission from the Court, and is barred from having any contact with the victim,” the statement explained. Alayban, who was arrested July 10, is accused of forcing the Kenyan woman to work 16 hour days, seven days a week, for a monthly salary of just $220.

The unnamed victim, 30, who sought overseas work to pay for her young daughter’s medical care, allegedly worked in Alayban’s palace in Saudi Arabia and then in her home in Irvine, California, southeast of Los Angeles. Prosecutors said the victim had signed a contract with an employment agency that promised her a salary of $1,600 a month for a 40-hour work week.

The princess was charged with “human trafficking of a Kenyan woman into the United States and forcing the victim to work as a domestic servant against her will,” the Orange County District Attorney said in a statement. If convicted Alayban could face up to 12 years in jail.