Tell-all trailer shows hard-partying Saudi royals

Gambling, drinking, hard drugs and abortions are not usually associated with deeply conservative Saudi Arabia but a new trailer released on YouTube may challenge that image.

The film “Sins of King Fahd,” based on a soon-to-be-released book written by Palestinian Janan Harb, details the author’s travails as she fell in love with the Saudi royal and claims to expose scandalous behavior by the secretive House of Saud, which forced her out of the country.

Although details of the film are scarce, the trailer shows scenes of casino gambling, drinking, drug injections and what appears to be a forced abortion.

The hard-partying behavior is particularly egregious in Saudi Arabia, — site of Islam’s two holiest cities, Mecca and Medina — where strict Islamic Sharia law is enforced by the state, meaning alcohol consumption, gambling and drugs are strictly forbidden.

Damien McCrystal, a media consultant for the film, said Fahd, who became king in 1982 and died in 2005, remains a figure of interest among Muslims.

“[We] believe that most of the Muslim world is fascinated by the Saudi royal family — particularly by Fahd, who although greatly loved was also somewhat contradictory in his public denunciation of the West but [had a] private love of parties and gambling in London and elsewhere,” he told the Middle East Eye.

Harb was born to Palestinian Christians but moved with her family to Saudi Arabia at an early age. While living in Saudi Arabia she met the future King Fahd, who was a prince at the time, and according to her, they fell in love and were married.

“We had a lovely life [for] the first two years. It was a very beautiful life. But the third year was quite tragic, because it was taken seriously. His brothers were grooming him to become a king, and didn’t accept him having a Palestinian Christian wife,” Harb, who converted to Islam to marry Fahd, said in an interview with RT News.

Harb was given two hours to leave the country, whereupon she decamped for the England. “I was 23 years old without penny or possessions. A nightmare was beginning. I was in contact with the King regularly from that time until his illness in 1995 and I knew that he always had my interests at heart. However, his illness meant that all communication and support from the King was lost. It was the start of a long battle to be heard,” she said in a statement in 2006.

The battle seemed to have ended in 2003 when she claims to have reached an agreement with Fahd’s son Abdul Aziz to pay her a £12 million lump payment and ownership of two luxury apartments in London.

In 2015, Harb successfully sued Aziz for refusing to honor his agreement with her and won a £20 million judgment against him. Aziz has since appealed the verdict claiming errors of law and bias against him.