International

International

King Fahd’s widow takes to PR to win her battles
By Paul Michaud
PARIS - Janan Harb, the widow of King Fahd, who died last August, is letting it be known that not only will she be continuing her legal odyssey against the late monarch, but also she has decided to take a leaf from the Saudi elite and take to public relations to attempt to get across her point of view.

Although a nascent industry, public relations is sweeping the Persian Gulf countries in general, and Saudi Arabia in particular. Janan Harb, besides obtaining the services of a London-based PR consultancy, Project Associates, to promote her cause in the United Kingdom and Western Europe, she's also chosen to set up a special website -- www.janankingfahd.com -- to get her point of view across.

Through Project Associates and two of its principals, directors David Rigg and Stuart Higgins, the latter being former editor of The Sun and head of Stuart Higgins Communications, she says in a story published in a recent issue of the London-based global public relations industry bible PR Week - that she will also be seeking some £400 million of Fahd's estate before the European Court of Human Rights, apparently downgrading a previous claim for £32bn of his fortune.

In an interview with Hannah Marriott of PR Week, Harb says that she is planning to write a book about herself, and what it was like being the wife of one of the world's most powerful monarchs, suggesting, apparently, that she might tell a bit of what she knows about the goings-on behind the rather gothic Saudi halls of power.

In doing so, Janan Harb told PR Week that "she is now hoping that publicity will persuade the Saudi royal family to negotiate with her." Nothing more, nothing less.

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