Princess Latifa, daughter of the Emir of Dubai, said she was being held hostage and feared for her life, in videos broadcast by the BBC. Latifa, 35, tried to flee the country in 2018 but was captured and has since made no public statement.
“I am in a mansion. I am kidnapped and this mansion has turned into a prison,” said the princess, in video recorded with a cell phone in the bathroom because “it is the only room with a door. that I can close “.
“All the windows are locked, there are five policemen outside and two policemen inside.” I worry about my safety and my life every day. The police told me that I would be in prison all my life and that I would never see the sun again, ”he continues.
The videos of the princess were released on Tuesday by the BBC, which obtained them from close friends of the princess. Contacted by AFP, officials in Dubai did not comment on the case.
In 2018, Latifa Al-Maktoum announced in a video posted on Youtube that he wanted to flee his country. On the verge of tears, she said she was tortured and imprisoned for three years by her father, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktum, after a first escape attempt as a teenager in 2002.
This video was posted after the failed 2018 attempt, when the sailboat she was trying to escape on was seized by the Indian Navy. According to the BBC, Latifa said she was doped during the capture of the boat and only woke up in Dubai, where she is being held.
Mohamed al Maktoum, 71, is the Emir of Dubai and the current Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates. Father of Latifa, he was appointed responsible for leading the transformations that have made Dubai a city of global importance. He was behind the construction of the Burj Khalifa building, the tallest building in the world at 828 meters, and the creation of the Emirates Airline, among other projects.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Wednesday he would like to have proof that Princess Latifa is alive and well. “These images are very distressing. It is a very difficult and worrying case,” the minister told Sky News.
On Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights told the BBC she would question the UAE about the princess.
In March 2020, British courts found that the Emir of Dubai had ordered the kidnapping of two of his daughters, Latifa and Shamsa. At the age of 18, Shamsa left in 2000, while on vacation in England. According to Latifa’s account, the sister was found after two months, drugged, brought back to Dubai and arrested.
In 2019, Princess Haya, sister of the King of Jordan, fled to London, where she initiated Al Maktoum’s divorce proceedings. She accuses him of gender-based violence. Haya was the sixth wife of the ruler of Dubai, with whom he had two children, who are with her in London.