Tag: Escape from Dubai

  • Princess Latifa: ‘Hostage’ ordeal of Dubai ruler’s daughter revealed

    Princess Latifa: ‘Hostage’ ordeal of Dubai ruler’s daughter revealed

    The daughter of Dubai’s ruler who tried to flee the country in 2018 later sent secret video messages to friends accusing her father of holding her “hostage” as she feared for her life. In footage shared with BBC Panorama, Princess Latifa Al Maktoum says commandos drugged her as she fled by boat and flew her back to detention. The secret messages have stopped – and friends are urging the UN to step in.

  • SET HER FREE Dubai ruler DID imprison daughter princess Latifa and must be brought to justice, says UN

    SET HER FREE Dubai ruler DID imprison daughter princess Latifa and must be brought to justice, says UN

    Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum “ordered and orchestrated” the kidnapping of his daughter Princess Latifa, 34, two years ago after she fled the emirate he rules, according to a judgement by the UK High Court in March. Yet despite worldwide publicity and her plight being featured in an award-winning BBC documentary – Escape from Dubai: The Mystery of a Missing Princess – she is still being held against her will in her homeland. She has not been seen in public since the luxury yacht she was staying on with a friend was stormed by commandos in the Indian Ocean in March 2018. The UN’s Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) has backed a complaint by the Free Latifa campaign, who had called on it to intervene in the case.

  • Dubai ruler’s ‘imprisoned’ daughter Princess Latifa remains in ‘grave danger’ as family begs UN to save her

    Dubai ruler’s ‘imprisoned’ daughter Princess Latifa remains in ‘grave danger’ as family begs UN to save her

    The United Nations is being urged to take “decisive action” to protect “imprisoned” Princess Latifa of Dubai who lawyers believe is in “grave danger” at the hands of her billionaire father. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum “ordered and orchestrated” the kidnapping of his daughter two years ago after she fled the country he rules, according to a judgement by the UK High Court in March.

  • The inside story of the Dubai princess who fled from her billionaire father

    The inside story of the Dubai princess who fled from her billionaire father

    Two years ago, Princess Latifa staged an escape from her repressed life in Dubai. It failed and she hasn’t been seen in public since. When we got in the car on the day of our escape, I turned to Latifa and said, ‘We’re like Thelma and Louise,’ says Tiina Jauhiainen, with a small smile at the bittersweet memory. ‘But then Latifa cried out, ‘No, no, don’t say that! Their story doesn’t have a happy ending.’’ That was two years ago, on 24 February 2018, the day that Princess Latifa bint Mohammed al-Maktoum, daughter of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, ruler of Dubai and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, tried to escape her life as a Dubai princess, with the help of her best friend Tiina.

  • “You’re Essentially a Prisoner”: Why Do Dubai’s Princesses Keep Trying to Escape?

    “You’re Essentially a Prisoner”: Why Do Dubai’s Princesses Keep Trying to Escape?

    First Princess Latifa tried to flee by boat and almost made it to India—before being sent back. Then Princess Haya, Sheikh Mohammed’s “public wife,” refused to return from England. Now the sheikh is battling her in court over their children. Amid the fine horses competing in this year’s Royal Ascot, the red-coated postilions driving the Queen of England in her carriage, and the rabble in immense grandstands, one man stands in the event’s most exclusive VIP area wearing a black silk hat. Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the leader of Dubai, more often wears the traditional headscarf and white robe, or kandura, of Dubai, one of the seven states that make up the United Arab Emirates—but for the most important race of the season, he makes an exception.

  • Dubai: Princess Haya’s flight to UK threatens diplomatic crisis

    Wife of sheikh is said to fear kidnap after disappearances of other female royals Princess Haya Bint al-Hussein’s flight to Britain is threatening to provoke a diplomatic crisis as her husband, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai and a key UK ally in the Gulf, faces mounting criticism over his family’s treatment of women. The 45-year-old, a half-sister of the king of Jordan, is understood to be living in London in fear of kidnap following the alleged abductions of several close relatives.

  • Neighbours rail against sheikh as fence ‘flouts planning rules’

    The ruler of Dubai has been accused of showing “cynical disregard” for planning laws by erecting a two-metre high spiked metal fence around his country estate in Surrey.