Saudi princess runs up £13m debt

Maha al-Sudairi is not a typical debtor. The Saudi Arabian princess, wife of the country's Interior Minister, Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, has taken a suite at the George V in Paris (above), one of the world's most opulent hotels.

But rather than receiving royal dignitaries, her guests in recent days have been an assortment of lawyers, and shop owners, all trying to get her to pay back their share of the £13m or so that she is said to owe them.

Luxury jewellers Chaumet, who have a boutique in the Place Vendome, sent bailiffs to the hotel to chase al-Sudairi for the £510,000 that she spent on rings and necklaces. They came back empty-handed, and now many of the shop owners are planning to club together and sue the princess, who enjoys diplomatic immunity.

Jamila Boushaba, the owner of a lingerie shop called O Caprices de Lili, has been trying to get €70,000 from al-Sudairi for the past year, "I have tried to contact her many times but I am always told, 'Madame is sleeping'," she told the Times.

"When I got through on the telephone, she insulted me, calling me a 'dirty Moroccan whore'... We feel we are fighting against the second biggest fortune of Saudi Arabia. It's crazy - they cut off the hands of thieves there for stealing a loaf of bread but she comes to Europe and thinks she can get away with anything."

This isn't the first time that al-Sudairi, who works to 'introduce French pastry restaurants to the Saudi markets' for the Arab-French Chamber of Commerce, has courted controversy. In 1995, she assaulted her driver, a man called Hamada, who she accused of stealing from her, in Orlando, Florida.

After throwing a vase at him and screaming, she then took off her sandal and pummeled the man with it. With a prosecution against the princess a real possibility, the situation was eventually defused when a group of Saudi diplomats flew in from Washington.

A year later, she reportedly locked up the manager of the Marriott hotel in Riyadh for three days after throwing a hissy-fit. Now though, it's al-Sudairi herself who is cooped up in a hotel, as her various creditors set up camp outside. ·