The United Nations human rights body said on Wednesday it will seek information from the United Arab Emirates on a daughter of the powerful ruler of Dubai after she said in video messages that she was being imprisoned in a heavily guarded villa.
Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum tried to flee the rich Gulf state in 2018, but was detained by commandos on a boat off India. She was not heard from until Tuesday, when the BBC’s Panorama investigative program broadcast video messages from Sheikha.
In the videos, which appear to have been covertly recorded, the 35-year-old princess says she is “concerned for my safety and my life.” “I really don’t know if I’m going to survive this situation,” he says in one of the videos. The BBC said they were recorded for months on a phone it secretly received about a year after their capture.
Marcus Essabri, a cousin who lives in England, told the BBC that the videos stopped about six months ago and that there has been no word from Latifa since.
“I’m afraid she was caught on the phone and now I’m afraid for her safety,” he said.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said it would “raise these new developments with the UAE. Other parts of the UN human rights system with relevant mandates may also get involved once they have analyzed the new material or received specific allegations, ”spokesman Rupert Colville told the BBC.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called the videos very distressing and said he supported a UN investigation.
Raab said Britain was concerned but suggested that there was little the government could do because Latifa is not a UK citizen.
Sheikh Mohammed and the Dubai royal court have said that Latifa is safe under the loving care of her family. The UAE government’s Dubai Media Office did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
In 2018, the AP reported how a friend and a former French spy helped Sheikha Latifa escape by boat, only to be captured off India.
The dramatic escape attempt and its aftermath intruded on the carefully controlled image maintained by the family of Latifa’s father, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
Sheikh Mohammed, who rules Dubai and also serves as Prime Minister and Vice President in the hereditarily ruled United Arab Emirates, is believed to have several dozen children from various wives. Some of his sons and daughters feature prominently in local media and online, but others are rarely seen. Sheikha Latifa was widely known for her love of skydiving before 2018.
Sheikh Mohammed’s family life became a public affair again in 2020. Later, a British judge ruled that the sheikh had carried out a campaign of fear and intimidation against his estranged wife and ordered the kidnapping of two of his daughters, one of them Sheikha Latifa. The ruling came in a High Court custody battle between Sheikh Mohammed and estranged wife Princess Haya, daughter of the late King Hussein of Jordan, who lives in the UK.
Sheikh Mohammed is the founder of the successful Godolphin horse racing stable and maintains a friendly relationship with Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain. In 2019, he received a trophy from the queen after one of his horses won a race at Royal Ascot.
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She is a freelance blogger, writer, and speaker, and writes for various entertainment magazines.