GENEVA – United Nations human rights activists on Tuesday expressed concern that the Dubai government had not responded to repeated requests to prove that Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed al-Maktoum, a daughter of the billionaire ruler of Dubai, was alive.
“Evidence of life and assurance regarding her well-being is urgently needed,” UN analysts said in a statement, which comes two months after friends of Sheikha Latifa released dramatic video footage in which she said she was being held captive in a palace in Dubai. and feared for her life.
The 13 experts, including members of a panel dealing with forced disappearances, sought to increase international pressure on Dubai’s government through the immediate release of Sheikha Latifa.
“It is now the job of world leaders to support the UN and give their support for its immediate release,” David Haigh, a British lawyer campaigning for the freedom of Sheikha Latifah, said in a telephone interview.
The 35-year-old princess twice tried to escape her strictly controlled life in Dubai, in 2002 and in 2018. On the second occasion, she fled aboard a yacht, only to be snatched away by Indian commandos who were on the vessel off the coast of India and handed her over to the security officials of Emirati.
Sheikha Latifa has been virtually unseen ever since and appeared once in a photo of a 2018 luncheon attended by former Irish President Mary Robinson. At the time, Mrs. Robinson said she believed Sheikha Latifa was mentally worried and that she was receiving good care from her family, but she later told the BBC she was “horribly misled.”
“Every day I worry about my safety in my life,” Sheikha Latifa said in her recent video, which according to friends was recorded on a cell phone and smuggled out by intermediaries. “I do not really know if I will survive this situation.”
The former assurance from Dubai that family members and medical professionals would take care of her is not enough at this stage, the UN panel said.
The United Arab Emirates’ diplomatic missions in Geneva and London could not be reached for comment on the UN panel statement.
Concern over the well-being of Sheikha Latifa is heightened by reports of harsh behavior by her father, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, which emerged in a divorce proceedings filed by one of his wives, Princess Haya, in British courts was filed.
A judge ruled last year that Sheikh Mohammed also abducted Sheikha Latifah’s sister Shamsa. The court heard that she was confiscated in the streets of Cambridge in August 2000 after leaving an estate of her father, then taking a helicopter to France and then flying to Dubai.
In an effort to intensify international pressure, Mr. Haigh said the campaign would ask the British and US governments and the European Union next week to impose financial sanctions and travel bans on Sheikh Mohammed and five others he said were involved in the detention of Sheikha Latifa. These include the Emirati chief of security, Major General Ahmed Nasser al-Raisi, who has nominated the United Arab Emirates as a candidate to lead the international policing organization Interpol. Haigh said.
Sheikh Mohammed, who is considered among the richest men in the world, has great interest and investments in Britain and the United States. He is a passionate horse enthusiast and includes the race organization Godolphin, whose horse Essential Quality is a favorite to win the Kentucky Derby on May 1st.