She became pregnant the following year and worried that her elderly husband, a member of the Royal Family of Saudi Arabia, had become suspicious of her behaviour, but persuaded him to let her visit the UK again to give birth in secret. She persuaded the court that if she returned to the Gulf state she and her child would be subject to capital punishment under Sharia law, the report said.
Since she fled Saudi Arabia, her family and her husband's family have broken off contact with her. Her case is one of a small number of claims for asylum brought by citizens of Saudi Arabia, which are not openly acknowledged by either government. Both, the British Home Office and the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in London, have declined to comment on the issue, the report added.
According to Amnesty International, there were at least 102 executions of men and women by stonings, floggings, beheadings and hangings last year and the charity claims there are at least 136 more people on death row. (Indian info)
Media Watch 02;
A Saudi Arabian princess who had an illegitimate child with a British man has been granted asylum in the UK, the Independent newspaper has reported.
It said the married woman was allowed to stay after telling a judge that her affair left her at risk of being stoned to death in her home country.
The woman, who has been given anonymity by a court, is married to a member of the Saudi royal family, the paper said.
The Home Office declined to comment on the case.
The Independent says the woman is one of a small number of Saudi Arabian citizens whose asylum claims are not acknowledged publicly by either country's government.
Sharia law
The woman reportedly began a relationship with a British man - who is not a Muslim - during a visit to London and later became pregnant.
After giving birth secretly in the UK, she took a case to the Immigration and Asylum tribunal, it is claimed.
Under Saudi Arabia's Sharia law system, adultery is punishable by public flogging or execution.
In 2008, the country's courts ordered the execution of 102 people, according to human rights group Amnesty International.
The latest case appears to echo that of another member of the Saudi royal family, 19-year-old Princess Mishaal bint Fahd, who was executed in 1977 after admitting adultery.
When a controversial film about the case, Death of a Princess, was shown in the UK, Saudi authorities responded by expelling the British ambassador in Riyadh. (BBC/Ends/)
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