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UN should seek release of Dubai princess and her sister, says Mary Robinson
Princess Latifa has called for police to reinvestigate the disappearance of her sister in 2000.
Former President of Ireland Mary Robinson has said the UN Office of the High Commissioner should “seek the release” of Dubai princess Sheikha Latifa and her sister.
Robinson, the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said last month that she was “horribly tricked” over a photo taken of her with Princess Latifa, the daughter of the Dubai ruler Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum– who has said she is being held hostage by her father.
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If a woman succeeds, she must be taken down
Princess Latifa bint Mohammed al-Maktoum’s plaintive cries from her captivity are heart-rending. Here is a young woman who has been locked up by her father, the ruler of Dubai and the prime minister of the United Arab Emirates. Rapunzel may be eating off gold plates in her villa jail but she can’t escape.
In her recent video she sounded desperate, and her family insinuate she is mad. The 35-year-old had tried to flee but was kidnapped by armed commandos. Her sister Shamsa “disappeared” in a similar snatch two decades earlier.
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Queen has accepted racehorses from ruler of Dubai even after his wife Princess Haya fled to London
The Queen has continued to accept gifts of racehorses from the ruler of Dubai, even after his wife fled to London in fear of her life.
Horses given by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum accounted for a sixth of those that carried the Queen’s silks during the flat season last year.
Some of the gifts were accepted after the sheikh’s youngest wife, Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, 46, fled to London with their two young children in March 2019. Two months later the princess, a former Olympic equestrian, was invited to join the Queen for tea at Windsor.
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Justine McCarthy: Mary Robinson must lead on search for missing Princess Latifa
For those of us who celebrated Mary Robinson’s election as Ireland’s first woman president in 1990 the vapour trails of euphoria lingered long after she had left Aras an Uachtarain seven years later. She was a feminist who did not just talk the talk; she had walked the walk to Leinster House and the Four Courts as a senator and a senior counsel, chipping away at the patriarchal edifice to carve out improvements in women’s lives. Her election as the head of this state came at the end of a decade of horrors for Irish females, most notably the medieval evisceration of Joanne Hayes at the Kerry Babies tribunal; the tragic death of Ann Lovett, 15, with her newborn baby at the feet of a statue of the Blessed Virgin in Granard; the court-approved dismissal of Eileen Flynn from her teaching job in Wexford for cohabiting with a married man; and two viciously fought referendums on abortion and divorce when women’s feelings were hurled around like rocks by warring cavemen.
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Help to free my sister, Dubai princess begs British police
The missing Dubai princess has appealed to British police to reinvestigate the fate of an older sister who disappeared in Cambridge two decades ago, according to a smuggled letter.
Princess Latifa, 35, who says that she is being held captive by her family, said that police could help to free Princess Shamsa, 39.
The older sister ran away in 2000 from a Surrey estate owned by her father, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai. She was seized two months later. Cambridgeshire police investigated the case at the time but were blocked from pursuing it to the United Arab Emirates.
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Letters: Robinson’s lunch with Princess Latifa is too much to swallow
Justine McCarthy is right to take to task former president Mary Robinson for her lunch with Princess Latifa, daughter and prisoner of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, billionaire ruler of Dubai (“Why I feel let down by Mary Robinson”, Comment, last week).
In March 2018, Princess Latifa recorded a heart-rending video detailing her life of subjugation, including her plan to mount an escape. She said that her video would be published only if her escape failed. It did fail, as her father had her recaptured, and so friends released the video, which is still available on YouTube.
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Princess Latifa bint Mohammed al-Maktoum seized in exchange for arms dealer
The daughter of the ruler of Dubai was seized by Indian commandos as part of a deal to extradite a British arms dealer, a United Nations panel has ruled.
Princess Latifa bint Mohammed al-Maktoum was captured on a yacht off the coast of Goa as she attempted to escape her father in March 2018, then drugged and returned to Dubai.
Weeks later Christian Michel, 59, was extradited from Dubai to Delhi, where he is accused of paying bribes to help AgustaWestland, the helicopter manufacturer that has a base in Yeovil, Somerset, win a contract worth more than $500 million.
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Emirati princess calls for new probe to find sister who vanished 21 years ago
Emirati princess Latifa Al Maktoum has urged police in the UK to reinvestigate the disappearance of her older sister, Princess Shamsa.
Princess Latifa, who says she has been held captive in a “villa jail” in Dubai by her father Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum since an attempt to flee in 2018, said Shamsa was also captured by her father.
Shamsa, now 38, was abducted from the streets of Cambridge on August 19, 2000 and has never been seen in public since. It is believed she was returned to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
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UAE: Princess Latifa asks UK police to reopen case into sister Shamsa’s kidnapping
Dubai’s Princess Latifa has urged British police to reopen its case into the kidnapping of her sister Shamsa by her father, Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, according to a letter shared with the BBC.
In a handwritten letter given to Cambridgeshire police on Wednesday, Latifa, who last week appeared in footage describing herself as a “hostage” of her father, said a new investigation could help free her sister.
Princess Shamsa, now 39, has not been seen in public for two decades since allegedly being abducted in the UK as a teenager by men working for Sheikh Mohammed.
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In Sheikh Mohammed the UK has a great friend – we should be more appreciative of his kindness
The ruler of Dubai transformed the bloodstock industry in Britain and has been generous to the country through difficult times. Most of us have learnt a lot about ourselves and a good deal about others this year. If we didn’t realise it before, we now know that there are two ways of reacting to a crisis. The first is to feel one’s own pain, which is perfectly natural. We’ve been programmed by nature to survive. And that is why our first instinct should be to protect ‘the home’. The second, however, is to try and help others. Not just our family and friends, but people we’re never even going to meet. And gratifyingly it turns out that the world is a nicer place than I would have predicted.