Mohammed al Fassi (1952 – Dec. 24, 2002), at times referred to as Prince al Fassi, was a Moroccan/ Saudi businessman related by marriage to the

Saudi royal family The House of Saud ( ar, آل سُعُود, ʾĀl Suʿūd ) is the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia. It is composed of the descendants of Muhammad bin Saud, founder of the Emirate of Diriyah, known as the First Saudi state (1727–1818), and ...

. His sister was married to Prince Turki bin Abdul Aziz, one of the brothers of Saudi King Fahd al Saud. Al Fassi's notoriety stems largely from his 1978 purchase for $2.4 million of the 38-room white-stucco

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Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Bev ...

, which he had painted an unpopular shade of green. He also had painted the publicly visible statues around the house in flesh tones, with pubic hair painted black, raising the ire of many of his neighbors. In 1979 the mansion was used as a filming location for ''

The Jerk ''The Jerk'' is a 1979 American comedy film directed by Carl Reiner and written by Steve Martin, Carl Gottlieb, and Michael Elias (from a story by Steve Martin and Carl Gottlieb). This was Martin's first starring role in a feature film. The fil ...

'' starring

Steve Martin Stephen Glenn Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician. He has won five Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and was awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 2013. Additionally, he was nominated ...

. Within two years of its purchase, just after midnight on January 2, 1981, the house was completely destroyed by a fire which was set by burglars. In 2010, the house was replaced by two new buildings. Al Fassi soon relocated to Miami, joining other members of the Saudi royal family already there, and already provoking notoriety with helicopter commuting and large and unusual charitable contributions. Among his exploits there were disputes over fencing he erected on city property, the hiring of city police officers to serve as security guards, a lawsuit from a contractor for unpaid bills, and a dust-up over a proposed Big Ben-style clock to be built on Star Island in

Biscayne Bay Biscayne Bay () is a lagoon with characteristics of an estuary located on the Atlantic coast of South Florida. The northern end of the lagoon is surrounded by the densely developed heart of the Miami metropolitan area while the southern end is la ...

. Al Fassi had mixed success as an animal lover; he was known to have adopted scores of stray cats, and to have purchased live birds, fish, and even lobsters in order to set them free, but he was also charged with animal cruelty when investigators from the Greater Miami Humane Society found evidence of neglect. In 1991 Al Fassi was arrested in

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

and hastily extradited to Saudi Arabia, where he was held without charges until his release to house arrest. His arrest stemmed from his having taken the side of Iraq in the

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. He made broadcasts from

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

denouncing Saudi Arabia for its participation in the war, for its human rights policies, and calling for democracy.Dennis McLella
Article in LA Times
Dec 21, 2002 Al Fassi died Dec. 24, 2002 in Cairo. According to

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, the divorce lawyer for his first wife, Sheika Dena al Fassi, he died of an infected hernia, and was survived by four grown children.

References

„Tales from An Arabian Nightmare“
by William McWhirter; May 2, 1983 at www.people.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Fassi, Mohammed Al 1952 births 2002 deaths 20th-century Saudi Arabian businesspeople