This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
It may take a couple weeks for Monsour Alshammari to be extradited to Utah to face a date rape charge.
Alshammari, 27, is being held in a federal detention facility in the San Diego area after allegedly trying to unlawfully enter Mexico last week, according to Orem police. Alshammari could waive extradition to speed up the process; otherwise, it will probably take about two weeks, Orem police Lt. Craig Martinez said Wednesday.
The Saudi Arabian national is charged in 4th District Court with first-degree felony rape and second-degree felony obstructing justice for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman while they were on a date in February.
Meanwhile, Alshammari's defense attorney Ron Yengich clarified Wednesday that Alshammari is not related to the Saudi Arabian royal family "in terms of kinship."
"[Alshammari] came to the US to study as a student sponsored by the Saudi government scholarship program to study his higher education in the states," according to a statement from the Saudi Arabian Consulate to Yengich that was forwarded to news media.
However, an affidavit written by an Orem police detective to obtain a no-bail warrant for Alshammari's arrest warrant states that Homeland Security discovered "that he is related to Saudi Arabian royalty."
Orem police clarified on Wednesday that though the affidavit "alludes to that and in the beginning stages of the investigation Mr. Alshammari claimed that he was related to 'royalty' in Saudi Arabia and wanted diplomatic immunity," the claim was never substantiated by anyone in their office, "and has no bearing on the case itself."
"We are not in the business of doing genealogy work on the suspects we arrest," the police statement reads, "and when the Detective wrote the [affidavit] and made reference to that, he believed at the time that it was pertinent information for the court to hear."
The affidavit also cited the "potential vast resources" of the Saudi Arabian government, and Alshamarri's resulting flight risk, for contacting Homeland Security, who placed the alert on his immigration file.
On Feb. 25, a woman reported to police that Alshammari had sexually assaulted her while they were at his Orem apartment on a date. When police interviewed Alshammari in March, he said that she never went to his apartment and he never touched her, according to the arrest affidavit.
But officers later went to Alshammari's apartment and found that details about it matched the description the woman had given them, according to the affidavit. Police arrested Alshammari on March 26 and booked him into Utah County Jail.
He posted bail five days later, according to the affidavit.
On April 17, Alshammari allegedly tried to enter Mexico and was detained by Mexican authorities, who released him to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. In requesting the no-bail warrant, police noted that Alshammari was willing to leave behind the $100,000 he had posted as bail to avoid prosecution.
Another scheduling hearing was set for May 5.
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