“In response to media reports regarding Sheikha Latifa, we would like to thank those who expressed their concern about her well-being, despite the coverage certainly does not reflect the actual position,” the family statement said according to the United Arab Emirates. (UAE) Embassy in London.
In secret surveys obtained by the BBC and shared with CNN, the daughter of the billionaire ruler of Dubai claims that she is being held hostage in a ‘villa converted into a prison’ without access to medical aid.
The royal family’s statement does not match the demands of the United Nations and the United Kingdom that the UAE provide proof of life for the sheikh.
In the statement, her family said that “Her Highness is cared for at home, supported by her family and medical professions.”
“She continues to improve and we are hopeful that she will return to public life at the right time,” he added.
Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum – the daughter of UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum – was last seen in public in March 2018 aboard a yacht off the coast of India, before a raid by Indian and Emirati forces have taken her back to According to two people who helped plan her escape, Dubai said.
It was her second failed attempt to flee abroad after trying to leave the UAE in 2002 as a teenager.
In one of the videos, Princess Latifa says: “I am a hostage. This villa has been converted into a prison. All the windows are closed, I can not open any window … I was alone, alone locked up. No access to medical assistance “No trial, no charge, nothing.”
According to the BBC, Princess Latifa recorded the videos herself on a cellphone while hiding in a closed bathroom. According to the documentary, her friend Tiina Jauhiainen was contacted about a year after Latifa was taken back to Dubai by someone who helped the couple reconnect.
Jauhiainen managed to get a phone call to Latifa and since then the princess has recorded many video messages “describing her imprisonment in a villa converted into a prison with its windows locked out,” according to a BBC press release.
“BBC Panorama has independently verified the details of the place where Latifa was held hostage. She has been guarded by about thirty police and is working on rotation, inside and outside the villa. The location is only a few meters from the beach. It is not known or she is still there, ”reads the press release.
In another video shown in the documentary, Latifa says: “I have been here since then, more than a year in solitary confinement. No access to medical assistance, no trial, no charge, nothing … Every day is “I’m worried about my safety and the police are threatening me that I will never see the sun again. I’m not safe here.”
CNN’s Caroline Faraj in Dubai, Mostafa Salem in Abu Dhabi and Sarah Dean in London contributed to this report.