The United Nations has said it will discuss with the UAE the alleged detention of Princess Latifa al-Maktoum, the daughter of the ruler of Dubai, after a series of videos of the 35-year-old who was apparently taken prisoner were broadcast as part of a documentary on CBS News’ partner network BBC News.
No one outside Dubai has heard of Latifa al-Maktoum and she has been locked up in a villa for more than two years, BBC News reports.
In the videos, recorded over a few months on a phone smuggled to al-Maktoum by her friend, the princess speaks directly to the camera and explains how she is being “held hostage”.
“All the windows are locked. I can not open any window. There are five policemen outside and two policemen in the house, and I can not even go outside to get fresh air,” she said.
“I worry every day about my safety and my life”
Al-Maktoum has apparently been imprisoned since 2018, when she wanted to flee Dubai to India with the aim of eventually claiming political asylum in the United States.
Reuters
In footage taken before her escape attempt, she said her family had control of her passport and that she had not been allowed to leave the UAE since 2000.
She was intercepted to slip out of the country on a yacht with her friend, Tiina Jauhiainen, and was forcibly injected with sedative and brought back to Dubai, she says in the videos.
Jauhiainen was taken back to the country separately and detained in a detention facility for two weeks.
“I am worried every day about my safety and my life. I do not really know if I will survive this situation,” al-Maktoum said in one of the videos. “The police have threatened me that I will be in jail all my life and I will never see the sun again … I just want to be free.”
“The situation is getting more desperate every day”
After her own release from prison and without any news about Latifa, Jauhiainen started the lobby group “Free Latifa”.
In 2019, with increasing international pressure, former UN human rights commissioner Mary Robinson traveled to Dubai to seek evidence that al-Maktoum is still alive.
The two met at the home of another royal family member, Princess Haya, al-Maktoum’s stepmother, who later fled the country with her two children. It was the only time Al-Maktoum was allowed out of her villa during her captivity, she said in the videos.
Princess Haya told Robinson that Latifa has mental health issues.
‘I was deceived, initially by my good friend, Princess Haya, because she was deceived. Haya began to explain that Latifa has a serious bipolar problem. And they said to me in a very convincing way, ‘We do not’ I do not want Latifa to go through any further trauma, ” Robinson said.
The British government is facing calls to get involved in the case of al-Maktoum, as her father, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, has strong ties to the UK and visits regularly.
“I do not know what they are going to do with me. I really do not know. So the situation is getting more desperate every day, and I am really really tired of this now,” al-Maktoum said in one of her videos.