Saudi Prince Faces Revived Rape Case

A Spanish court has reopened a rape case against Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz al-Saud of Saudi Arabia, a man Forbes recently dubbed the richest man in the Arab world. Prince Alwaleed allegedly drugged and raped a 20-year-old model aboard a luxury yacht in the Mediterranean in August 2008, according to the New York Times, but the case was quietly dropped last summer for what a judge on the resort island of Ibiza deemed a lack of evidence.

But now a provincial court has ordered the judge to reopen the investigation and summon the prince to court. A spokesman for Prince Alwaleed’s investment firm said the accusations were “completely and utterly false,” adding that the prince wasn’t even in Ibiza in August 2008, but rather in Paris and Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. But a lawyer for the alleged victim says tests confirm she was drugged and sexually assaulted, and he’s calling on the prince to provide a DNA sample. (More Alwaleed bin Talal stories.)