The scene was a five star hotel in the Saudi capital which is as notorious as it is opulent.
The reason for the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton’s notoriety is that it was central to the Arab state’s violent purge of hundreds of its most powerful royals, tycoons and ministers.
The 2017 crackdown saw dozens of Saudi’s ‘old guard’ beaten and tortured – with many of the most disturbing scenes unfolding at the Ritz-Carlton.
But the hotel’s owners had done everything possible to banish such dark memories as they organised an altogether more genteel event last week, billed as ‘afternoon tea with Princess Beatrice of York’.
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