Saudi prince’s ex-Jewish wife dies

A Jewish French woman who was allegedly imprisoned and later escaped from a Saudi royal palace fell to her death from a window in Paris. Candice Cohen-Ahnine recently wrote a book about her struggle to reclaim her daughter Aya from Saudi Prince Sattam al-Saud, who she claimed had been holding the girl since 2008.

While the cause of Cohen-Ahnine’s death last Thursday night was still being investigated, her attorney, Laurence Tarquiny-Charpentier, said that it was not a suicide. French media reports suggested that she had fallen “as if she was escaping something dangerous.”

According to Cohen-Ahnine’s book, she was held prisoner in a royal Saudi palace until a door was left open and she escaped to the French Embassy. She had been accused in Saudi Arabia of converting from Islam to Judaism, a crime punishable by death, the report said.

In January, Sattam al-Saud was told by a French court to hand over the daughter and provide monthly financial payments in the amount of 10,000 Euros. The Telegraph quoted the prince as replying, “If need be, I’ll go like [Osama] bin Laden and hide in the mountains with Aya.”