Saudi prince guilty of murdering aide

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CCTV image shows Saud Abdulaziz Bin Nasser Al Saud (wearing white) as he hits Bandar Abdulaziz in a lift in the Landmark Hotel in London.

London, England (CNN) -- A Saudi prince was found guilty Tuesday of murdering an aide in London in February.

Prince Saud Abdulaziz Bin Nasser Al Saud was found guilty of both murder and grievous bodily harm in the killing of Bandar Abdulaziz.

Abdulaziz died after a severe beating left him with swelling and bruising of the brain and fractured ribs and neck. He also had bite marks on his face, ears and arm.

The prince had not denied killing the aide, but said he had not intended to do so. He is due to be sentenced Wednesday.

He did not take the stand in his own defense.

Because the prince did not deny killed Abdulaziz, the jury's job was to determine if he was guilty of murder or manslaughter.

To do that, they had to determine the prince's state of mind and his intent at the time he killed Abdulaziz.

They took just over an hour and a half Tuesday to reach their verdict.

The prince showed no reaction as the jury's unanimous verdict was read in court.

The two men were in London earlier this year as Al Saud took in Morocco, the Maldives and other European cities on a long global holiday with Abdulaziz as his companion.

Al Saud's lawyer John Kelsey-Fry said in his closing argument Monday that Al Saud "must live with the consequences" of having killed Abdulaziz, but he never intended to harm him.

Kelsey-Fry reminded the jury that a pathologist had been unable to determine how Abdulaziz died but that only one of his injuries, by itself, could have killed him -- a compression of the neck, the barrister said, that could have been caused when Al Saud grabbed Abdulaziz briefly by the throat.

An "awful, reprehensible, culpable act," he said, "but an act of murder?"

Kelsey-Fry also challenged the prosecution's assertion that the defendant and the victim had a master-servant relationship, telling the jury that the two men had "enjoyed a genuine friendship."

He also disputed the prosecution's suggestion that the prince and his aide had a gay relationship, although the two men shared a hotel room, went shopping together and stayed out late in bars and nightclubs.

A series of witnesses had testified that both men appeared to be gay.

One witness, a hotel porter, described how he had gone to the room the two men shared in the hotel and observed them sorting their clothes by color and type.

Earlier in the day, prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw presented his closing argument. He told the jury they might consider drawing an "adverse inference" from the prince's refusal to face questions.

The case "cries out for an explanation," he said, adding that the jury might care to reflect on how the prince might have answered questions about the nature of his relationship with Abdulaziz, why it was that he attacked him on more than one occasion, his account of what happened the night his aide died and why it was that he waited hours before informing anyone of his death.

When he did contact authorities, Al Saud said that Abdulaziz had been assaulted by robbers three weeks earlier.

He is a man, said Laidlaw, "incapable of telling the truth."
 
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