Saudi prince affair - gay man's reprieve
Paul Tatnell
The Daily Telegraph
August 02, 2011 12:00AM
A MAN who claims to have been paid for sex by a Saudi prince has escaped immediate deportation because he fears he will be persecuted for being homosexual.
The Refugee Review Tribunal has been ordered to reconsider giving a visa to the man, who cannot be named, after first rejecting his tale of huge payments and months of secret royal liaisons.
Homosexuality is banned in Saudi Arabia and men have been jailed, lashed and reportedly executed.
The man has applied for a protection visa, claiming that because of his sexuality he fears his family's wrath and persecution from his community in Lebanon.
Court documents say that the man said he left his boyfriend in 2008 and travelled to Saudi Arabia because "the Saudi prince liked him very much". He said the prince arranged a visa and paid for his travel
and they had sex "in return for financial and material support".
But the deal went sour when the man was booted from the country after he was sprung having an affair with a friend of the prince.
The man fled to Melbourne where he frequented gay nightclubs.
Evidence tendered on his behalf included a reference from the prince, which his lawyers said showed that "he loved (the man) so much".
But the Immigration Department found the man's claims to fear persecution in Lebanon were undermined by "multiple inconsistencies" in his evidence about his employment, his first homosexual
relationship and his circumstances just before his travel to Saudi Arabia.
The tribunal also doubted the man's allegations, refusing to accept that he "was in a homosexual relationship with the prince or one of his friends". It even doubted the man was gay.
But the Federal Magistrates' Court ruled the tribunal erred in its decision to deny the man a visa because it failed to raise its doubts about his sexuality and affair with the prince during its questioning.
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