Britain: A woman who claims she was the wife of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd and that he had failed to provide reasonable maintenance for her has won a public hearing in Britain of the monarch's claim for sovereign immunity.
Lord Justice Thorpe in the Court of Appeal said that in March 2001, an undisclosed principal - in reality the king - had paid Janan George Harb a substantial sum for entering into a binding deed of confidentiality covering all aspects of her past relationship with him.
Last October, the president of the family division, Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, sitting in private and upholding the king's claim to immunity, refused permission for her judgment to be reported or published, removed any reference to Saudi Arabia from the court order and gave the case the fictitious identity of Maple v Maple.
When Mrs Harb applied for permission to appeal on the immunity issue, Lord Justice Thorpe, Lady Justice Smith and Lord Justice Wall refused to hear the matter in private.
If the king failed in his claim for immunity, he would be entitled, like everyone else, to a private hearing of Mrs Harb's assertion that there was a marriage, the court ruled.
Lord Justice Thorpe added there was a move towards greater openness in the family justice system and the court needed to be cautious of adopting fictions such as Maple v Maple that its critics could label as deceitful or designed to shield its workings from public scrutiny.