THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A Saudi princess who fled Paris's luxury Shangri-La hotel in the middle of the night to avoid paying a £5 million hotel bill is to have her assets seized in France, a judge has ruled.
Maha Al-Sudairi was caught ordering her entourage of 60 to load scores of suitcases into a fleet of limos outside the hotel at 3.30am in June last year. She had racked up the vast bill after checking into the hotel six months previously, taking over an entire 41-room floor.
But when King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia refused to pay for her stay, she attempted the early morning dash, claiming diplomatic immunity and moving to the nearby five-star Royal Monceau Hotel, near the Champs-Elysees, which is own by "family friend" the Emir of Qatar.
She then left France a month later and has not returned since.
Lawyers for the Shangri-La on Wednesday however won a legal bid at a court in Nanterre, west of Paris, to have her assets in France seized. » | Ian Sparks | Thursday, March 07, 2013
