Latifa al Maktoum Wiki
Latifa al Maktoum Biography
Princess Latifa al-Maktoum Because this is a prison and behind closed doors and barred windows is Princess Latifa al-Maktoum, whose spectacular attempt to flee the country of her birth ended in being drugged, kidnapped and imprisoned under armed guard in her ‘prison-village. ‘.
In a remarkable series of haunting videos smuggled from captivity, the 35-year-old daughter of Sheikh Mohammed-al-Maktoum, the autocratic ruler of Dubai, and horse racing-loving friend of the Royal Family, has described how the held hostage. for her father and fearing for her life.
The extraordinary footage, obtained by BBC Panorama, also reveals details of how her dramatic 2018 escape, which involved jet skis and a yacht, ended in her brutal recapture and forced repatriation.
She says she was captured by armed commandos who stormed her ship with smoke bombs and stun grenades, drugged her and took her back to Dubai, where her captors told her that she “would never see the sun again.
Princess Latifa al Maktoum, the kidnapped daughter of Dubai’s ruler, has smuggled a series of haunting videos out of captivity describing herself as being held ‘hostage’ by her father
“I kept saying you can’t take me back,” he recalled. ‘I want asylum and we are in international waters. You can’t kidnap me.
They were just on a mission and they were given orders. Latifa describes how she fought two Emirati officers and bit one of them on her arm before they zipped her hands up and then reassured her to keep her quiet.
Desperate to start a new life in the West away from the stifling conventions of Dubai, where all women must obey one man, she embarked on a getaway that had all the makings of a Hollywood blockbuster.
She was smuggled out of one of her father’s palaces, she was driven across the border into Oman from where she took a boat off the coast of the capital, Muscat, to the Arabian Sea.
She followed an encounter with Frenchman Herve Jaubert, a spy who had once escaped the United Arab Emirates disguised in a burqa and who was waiting for her with jet skis. She then crossed the waves at a speed of 15 miles to her Nostromo yacht.
But the 30-meter-long ship was being tracked and she was ambushed as she approached the Indian coast.
Princess Latifa’s ID Card which states her full name as Sheikha Latifa Mohd Rashed Almaktoum
She adds: ‘The police threatened me that I would be in prison my whole life and never see the sun again.
‘I don’t want to be a hostage in this jail-village, I just want to be free. I don’t know what they plan to do with me, I really don’t know. ‘
The videos will be a source of embarrassment to Ms. Robinson, who visited Latifa and after her meeting declared her a ‘troubled young woman’ without asking if she was being held against her will.
Ms Robinson, a former UN commissioner for human rights, now says she was ‘horribly tricked’ into attending the stage-led meeting and was shocked to see photos of her ‘private’ meeting with Latifa disclosed to the media.
She said that she had been told that the princess suffered from bipolar disorder and that she should not discuss her problem with her.
“I was deeply misled when the photos were made public, horribly misled,” she told the BBC.
Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum with his sixth wife, Princess Haya, 45, who fled to Britain last year with their children, Jalila and Zayed, terrified for her safety
I mean it was a total surprise. He was absolutely shocked. ‘ The meeting had been arranged by the now ex-wife of the Sheikh, Princess Haya, who would later flee Dubai in fear for her own life after she discovered her affair with one of her bodyguards.
In a video message, Latifa says of Ms. Robinson: “She said she had mental problems. She said that I was a young woman with problems, that I had a serious medical condition and that I was receiving help for her.
That implies that I have psychiatric problems. She knew I was okay. . . it was quite a montage. ‘
The secret messages emerged about a year after the princess’s recapture and are believed to have been filmed over several months.
The activists hope the videos will encourage the United Nations to push for the princess’s release.
They came after she got in touch with a friend, Finnish fitness instructor Tiina Jauhiainen, who was involved in the failed escape attempt, and a lawyer, David Haigh, who together organized the Free Latifa campaign.
Tiina met Latifa in late 2010 when she began giving martial arts lessons from her. Over the years, Latifa trusted her and in 2017 asked for help trying to escape her.
Speaking of the videos, Tiina said: ‘She is so pale that she hasn’t seen the sunlight for months. Basically she can only move from her room to the kitchen and back. ‘
Haigh said: “These videos go straight to the heart of the lie that Princess Latifa is happy to be held in Dubai.
She “she was kidnapped and is hostage. She has made these videos in the hopes that the outside world will realize that she is being held against her will. ‘
