Prosecutor says video shows Saudi prince attacking aide he’s accused of killing

Prosecutor: Video shows Saudi prince beating aide

LONDON — Security camera footage captured a Saudi prince savagely beating his servant in a luxury hotel elevator only weeks before the aide was slain, a British prosecutor said Tuesday.

Prince Saud Abdulaziz bin Nasser al Saud is accused of murdering Bandar Abdullah Abdulaziz in a frenzied sex attack at London’s Landmark Hotel on Feb. 15. Abdulaziz was found beaten and strangled to death in the room the two shared at London’s Landmark Hotel.

Prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw told London’s Central Criminal Court that there was evidence of a sexual assault, including bite marks on the victim’s cheeks.

Laidlaw also said there was evidence that the 34-year-old royal, whose grandfather is a brother of the current Saudi king, had abused his aide in the past, showing jurors video shot in the Landmark’s elevator which appears to show the shaven-headed prince, dressed in white, throwing his 32-year-old servant around and battering him.

Abdulaziz, dressed in black, occasionally tries to protect his head but otherwise meekly absorbs the punches.

“It is a nasty assault with the victim suffering a whole series of blows being struck with both fists and elbows,” Laidlaw said. “What is also evident from the victim’s behavior is that he had become by this point almost entirely submissive.

“He either could not or did not at any stage offer any sort of resistance to the assault, attempt to fight back or even raise his hand to the defendant.”

Al Saud originally told police that he and Abdulaziz had been drinking into the early hours of the morning, and that when he awoke at 3 p.m. he could not rouse him.

But Laidlaw said Al Saud has admitted manslaughter but denied charges of murder and causing grievous bodily harm.

The defense has yet to present its case.