ORLANDO, Fla. -- After a night in jail, a Saudi princess charged with beating her servant and pushing her down a flight of stairs was scheduled to go before a Florida judge Tuesday afternoon.
Princess Buniah al-Saud, a niece of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, was arrested late Monday and booked into the Orange County Jail without bond on charges of beating Memet Ismiyati, her Indonesian maid.
The judge she is to appear in front of at 1:30 p.m. could set bail, or order her held for further hearings.
Al-Saud, 41, could get up to 15 years in prison if the case goes to trial and she is convicted as charged, with felony aggravated battery.
Neighbors called 911 Friday after Ismiyati, 36, ran crying from the apartment she shared with the princess. She told deputies al-Saud beat her, hit her head against a wall and pushed her down a flight of stairs, leaving her unable to walk.
"When we talked to her (Ismiyati) through an Indonesian interpreter and saw the extent of her injuries, we upgraded the charges to a felony," Orange County Undersheriff Malone Stewart said.
Isimiyati told deputies that she "couldn't take it anymore."
Isimiyati was treated at a hospital and released.
When deputies went to the princess' apartment Friday, she denied striking or pushing the maid, according to sheriff's deputies' reports.
The Saudi Embassy in Washington said the princess had diplomatic immunity. But the Immigration and Naturalization Service said al-Saud failed to follow proper procedures by not notifying them of her itinerary in America, thereby leaving her without immunity.
To claim diplomatic immunity, a person must be accredited with his or her embassy or consulate and must be in the host country fulfilling a diplomatic function, a State Department spokesman said Tuesday.
The princess has been living in Orlando while studying English at the University of Central Florida.
In 1995, another Saudi princess was accused of beating her servants while visiting Orlando. Princess Maha Al-Sudairi, wife of the heir to the Saudi throne, reportedly beat a servant suspected of stealing $200,000 in cash and jewelry in front of deputies providing off-duty security for the princess. The deputies were later disciplined for not stopping the beating, not writing a report about the beating and not investigating a tip that another servant had been beaten.
Copyright 2007 by Internet Broadcasting Systems and Local6.com.
The Associated Press contributed to this
report. All rights reserved. This material
may not be published, broadcast, rewritten
or redistributed.