Princess Basmah bint Saud bin Abdulaziz al Saud is not
that kind to be easily mortified and cornered. Instead she has decided confront
the situation boldly and to expose the matter to the public.
Princess Basmah -a Saudi Arabian princess – fell victim
of a blackmail attempt involving a video of her that could anger and shock the
establishment in the hardline Islamic state.
According to The Daily Mail UK, the Princess is being
held to ransom by a man who plans to embarrass her with a video - if she does
not pay him £320,000.
The video shows her blowing a kiss and smoking with her
head uncovered - taboos in strict Saudi Arabia.
But Princess Basmah did not bow to the demands of the
man, but exposed the extortion attempt on her website and through social media
channels.
The London-based Princess campaigns for human rights in
the kingdom. According to the report, the plot began while Princess Basmah was
on holiday at Christmas at The Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland.
She received a message on Facebook from a man claiming to
be a friend, who she refuses to name but described as a sheikh in his 30s from
the United Arab Emirates. She later discovered the account had been hacked by
her blackmailer.
She was quoted as saying: 'He sent me a message saying
how fascinated he is by my work, how he admired my writings and how I was a
hero of the Arab world.'
She continued corresponding and then had a long video
conversation via the internet just after Christmas. 'He was a young man. He
started getting emotional, saying he would be coming to see me and that I had
to see him. He said he was very attracted to me and I started to become
suspicious.'
She felt the man, who resembled the sheikh, was trying to
entrap her into saying potentially embarrassing things of a sexual nature and
confronted him. Her blackmailer has demanded money not to publish the contents
of conversations the princess was tricked into having, as well as videos and
photographs. Princess Basmah says the video was stolen from her laptop and has
no sound but shows her talking to her son by Skype.
Princess Basmah is the the granddaughter of Saudi
Arabia's first king and founder of the modern state, King Abdulaziz, and the
115th daughter of his son King Saud, who reigned from 1953 to 1964.
She describes herself on her website as 'a tireless
advocate of peaceful but essential reform in the Kingdom and elsewhere'.
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