Tom Harper
March 8, 2020, The Sunday Times
Scotland Yard is being urged to open a criminal investigation into the billionaire ruler of Dubai after a court ruled last week that he had kidnapped two of his daughters.
Lawyers for Princess Latifa, who was abducted by men working for her father, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, are to write to Dame Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan police commissioner, asking her to launch an inquiry.
Last week a judge ruled that the sheikh, a friend of the Queen, had “ordered and orchestrated” the kidnap of Latifa, who had escaped from Dubai in 2018 only to be snatched from a boat in the Arabian Sea. She has not been seen since.
The High Court ruling followed a 10-month custody battle between the sheikh and his sixth and youngest wife, Princess Haya, 45. Sir Andrew McFarlane, president of the family division, found that the sheikh had conducted a “campaign of fear and intimidation”’ against Haya, forcing her to flee to London with their two children last April.
Radha Stirling, a lawyer who represents Latifa, said she would be writing to Dick to raise the plight of the princess and her sister Shamsa, who was kidnapped from a street in Cambridge in 2000.
“The only logical step is for Sheikh Mohammed to face an investigation and trial,” said Stirling. “Heads of state cannot behave like criminal kingpins.”
Sheikh Mohammed, who did not attend court, denies any wrongdoing.
He tried repeatedly to keep the findings secret but the case was ruled to be in the public interest.