A woman who brutalized her sister's five children is not immune from state prosecution for belonging to a Hawaiian sovereignty group, a state appeals court has ruled.

The state Intermediate Court of Appeals rejected Rita Makekau's appeal of her convictions for abuse of a household or family member and eight courts of second-degree assault. The court ruled that Makekau, 52, did not prove facts to support her claim of immunity.

Makekau claims to be the foreign minister of the Hawaiian Kingdom Government and calls herself Her Highness Kulamika Makekau, heir to the kingdom.

She is serving a five-year prison term without the possibility for parole after pleading no contest last year to charges that she assaulted and abused her three nephews and two nieces in 2004 and 2005 when the children were 7 to 14 years old.

The children said Makekau hit them on their heads and hands with knives, cans of dog food, and metal and wooden spoons.