Maid Accuses Saudi Princess of Abuse

O R L A N D O, Fla., Jan. 18 -- The Orange County Jail is a stark, no-nonsense facility — and an unlikely place to find a princess.

But that's exactly where Saudi Princess Buniah al Saud ended up last month, accused of hitting her Indonesian maid and pushing her down the stairs of her Orlando townhouse.

The princess, who denies the charges, is a niece of the Arab nation's King Fahd. Her arrest threatens to create an international incident and expose what human rights groups say are some ugly truths about the treatment of foreign servants employed by Saudis.

"Even though I'm a servant, I don't want to be hit," the maid, Ismiyati Soryono, told ABCNEWS' Brian Ross in an interview airing tonight on 20/20.

Orlando Popular With Saudi Royals

Orlando, with its fancy hotels and world-famous theme parks, has long been a favorite destination for members of the Saudi royal family.

"They are free to do whatever they want, to let their hair down, to enjoy and have a good time," said Abraham Pizam, dean of the school of tourism at the University of Central Florida.

Pizam said some of the Saudi royals would visit with as many as 30 or 40 servants, taking over a whole floor of a hotel and booking entire restaurants.

When Princess Buniah, 41, arrived in Orlando in March 2001 to study at the University of Central Florida, she brought a more modest retinue: just Soryono, her personal servant.

Life of a Royal Servant

Soryono, 36, came to Saudi Arabia from Indonesia. She said she became a royal servant, waiting on the princess hand and foot for a salary of $200 a month. Soryono said the princess even expected her to wait outside the shower stall while she was showering. Soryono obeyed, she told Ross in Indonesian, while an interpreter translated, "because I am a servant, and that is what she wanted done."

The princess had never hit her in Saudi Arabia, Soryono said, but the maid claims that changed when they got to Florida. One day, after Soryono forgot to include a pair of eyeglasses in a package sent to Saudi Arabia, her employer got angry with her and slapped her, Soryono said. Another time, she said, the princess slapped her and locked her in her room because she had walked in front of her during a shopping trip to Orlando's Florida Mall.