Kuwaiti Princess Fined in London for Thrashing Maids
Princess Faria al Sabah of Kuwait was given a six-month suspended sentence and fined $2,200 on Monday for thrashing two maids with an electric cable and a riding crop.
“Your conduct was disgraceful, verging on the barbaric,” Judge John Hayman told the 30-year-old princess, who admitted beating the servants--Shamsul Ariffa from Sri Lanka and Lexi Swami from India--for such offenses as sweeping too slowly.
“In this country, we no longer have maids, let alone assault them,” the judge said. “Count yourself fortunate that you have avoided being sent to prison by the skin of your teeth.”
The prosecutor at Knightsbridge Crown Court said that Ariffa, 26, threw her suitcase from a first-floor window of the luxury home in nearby Bayswater and fled to the Sri Lankan Embassy after the princess held her hand over a kitchen hot plate in 1983.
Lawyers for the Kuwaiti princess said she was “deeply sorry for what she did to the maids.”
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
