Decade of Violence and Threats Revealed in Court Battle

A court in Britain revealed that Dubai's ruler orchestrated the abduction of two daughters, then intimidated one of his many wives when she started questioning his treatment of them, according to documents released on Thursday by British court.

The ruler, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, has been under scrutiny after reports emerged at the end of 2018 regarding two of his daughters. Sheik Latifa Mohammed al-Maktoum and Sheik Shamsa al-Maktoum had both tried to escape, only to be abducted, one from the streets of Cambridge, and returned to house imprisonment in Dubai.

The wife, Princess Haya of Jordan, who fled months later with her two young children to London, said to have received constant threats.

None of these allegations had been proven or legally adjudicated before. Princess Haya raised them before the high court in the U.K. in a child custody case against the husband. Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum is unlikely to face any legal consequences. But the stark descriptions of how he used his wealth and absolute control against his own family may prove tough to shake.

The incriminating court judgment naming Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, risks destabilising diplomatic relationships with the United Arab Emirates, a close Gulf ally.

Relying on the testimony of four witnesses, a video that Sheikha Latifa recorded before her escape attempt in 2018, written statements and a police inquiry into the disappearance of Sheikha Shamsa's from Britain in 2000, judge Sir Andrew McFarlane, found the evidence to be in Princess Haya's favour.

The Sheikh's behaviour is "of a very high order of seriousness," Sir Andrew McFarlane wrote, and "may well involve findings" to possibly breaking English and international order.

Sheikha Shamsa's disappearance in Cambridge

Sheikha Latifa's video, then posted on YouTube, made headlines in late 2018 with the accusations that her father kidnapped Sheikha Shamsa after she fled her family's estate during a trip to the U.K. in 2000 and had held her drugged in isolation since.

The court documents outline Sheikha Shamsa's disappearance in much greater detail. It describes how armed men abducted her in Cambridge in August 2000, returned her to her father's estate in Newmarket where a helicopter took her to France before she was flown in a private jet back to Dubai.

"I don't have time to write in much detail, I am being watched all the time, so I get straight to the point," reads a letter written by Sheikha Shamsa to an immigration lawyer she had hoped could guide her on asking asylum in the UK. "I was caught by my father," states the letter, quoted by the court. "He sent four Arab men to get me; they were carrying guns and threatened me."

Those men gave her two injections and some tablets, the letter said, but the judge found there was insufficient evidence to support that claim, finding only that Sheikha Shamsa seemed drunk during the kidnap. Once back in Dubai, the letter said, she was put in isolated confinement.

The case investigation by the British police was dropped after Dubai declined a request to question Sheikha Shamsa in person.

Sheika Latifa plans

In the 2018 youtube video, Latifa said she also tried to escape, to Oman in 2002, out of fear at Sheikha Shamsa's condition. But she got caught, kept in isolated confinement and repeatedly tortured for more than three years.

This video could be the last video I make... And if you are watching it, it's not such a good thing. Latifa says. Either I'm dead, or I'm in a very, very, very bad situation...Soon I'm going to be leaving somehow... (Here) I'm not allowed to drive.... to travel or leave Dubai at all. I haven't left the country since 2000. She continues. I've been asking a lot just to go travelling, study, do anything normal. They (her father and his men) don't let me. I have a driver when I go out. I have to be back at a certain time. She (my mom) always needs to know where I am. The drivers report back to my father: where I go, what I do etc, etc... We're not allowed to get into anyone's car. The driver has to know exactly where I am. Yeah, that's my life. It's very restricted. ..I really hope I don't need this video. I feel I won't need it. I'm feeling positive about the future...They're not going to take me back alive...That's not going to happen.

Latifa talked about the abuse, imprisonment and torture she suffered at the hands of her family, as well as her suffocating life behind royal palace walls. "There is no justice here," she said, sitting near a window with billowing cream-coloured drapes in Jauhiainen's Dubai flat. "Especially if you're a female, your life is so disposable." Princess Latifa claimed that her father, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, 70-year-old ruler of Dubai, is "the worst criminal you can ever imagine", "responsible for so many people's deaths." She was recording her testimony to prevent a cover-up or being discredited, she said, in case she didn't succeed. "If this thing kills me or I don't make it out alive, at least there's a video."

She found an outlet in skydiving and looking after animals. She had secretly organised an escape with the help of her Finnish personal trainer and friend, hiring a Frenchman who claimed to be an ex-spy to flee her from the Arabian coast to India. Once there, she intended to ask asylum in the States.

As the yacht transporting Latifa near the Indian coast in February 2018, Emirati and Indian commandos attacked the boat and seized Latifa and company, her friends have said. The judge found the allegations sincere.

Tiina Jauhiainen, Latifa's Finnish friend and confidante, said she was "relieved and happy" that the court found her friend's story credible.

"However, I am also sad that although the British High Court has concluded that Latifa was unlawfully kidnapped, she is still being kept against her will," she has declared.

Latifa pictured with Ms Mary Robinson

Latifa, for two years, has not been seen in public, other than in photos released in December 2018by her family, looking confused, as she sat by former Irish PM and United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Mary Robinson.

In an attempt prove that she was safe at home, the government issued the photograph of Sheikha Latifa with Mary Robinson.

At the time, they said that Latifa was undergoing therapy for mental struggles at home.

Sheik Mohammed confirms he had ordered his daughters returned to Dubai

Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum declined to appear in court or to give witnesses, according to the court documents and did not oppose that he had ordered his daughters returned to Dubai after they attempted to flee. In a statements sent to the court, he cast each incident as an effort to protect them.

Quoting an email in which Sheikha Latifa stated her intentions to demand $300 million in damages against her father, the Sheikh replied the Frenchman who planned her escape, Herve Jaubert, had manipulated her to try and extort money.

"We feared that our daughter had felt in the hands of a criminal who might harm her," he said. "To this day, I regard Latifa's return to Dubai as a rescue mission."

Regarding Sheikha Shamsa's disappearance in 2000, he said, he and her mother "jointly decided to organise a search" after she "went missing for some time." Shamsa "was more vulnerable than other young women of similar age because her situation made her a kidnap opportunity," he said, and "her mother and I were concerned about her safety and health."

According to the court records, Princess Haya asked Ms Robinson to meet Sheikha Latifa in December 2018, a move that eventually did more to damage Ms. Robinson's reputation than to reduce concerns about the Latifa's well-being. But Princess Haya told the court she had already begun to have doubts about Sheikha Latifa's treatment, despite her husband's reassurances that she was "not stable and that she was bipolar."

A family physician whom Princess Haya had asked to evaluate Latifa told her "in unequivocal terms that nothing was wrong with Latifa," according to court papers. When she went to visit Latifa in a locked, guarded residence that was "similar to a prison," she told the court, Latifa hugged her and broke into tears.

Princess Haya admits affair with British bodyguard

Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum and Princess Haya had long had problems; Princess Haya admitted an affair with a British bodyguard started roughly a year ago. But the relationship with Sheikh Mohammed crumble even further as she kept confronting her husband about Latifa, she said. His response was: Stop interfering.

Almost immediately, there were indications that Princess Haya's status was at risk.

Trusted staff members got fired. Her desk at the royal court removed. Sheikh Mohammed investigated her finances. Without telling her, the Sheikh filed and obtained a divorce in sharia's law in February 2019. It was the 20th anniversary of her father's death.

Anonymous messages were often found in her rooms, warning in one case, "We will take your son, your daughter is ours, your life is over." Twice, she informed the court, she found a gun on her bed, the muzzle pointing toward the door, the safety catch off.

In April 2019, just a few weeks later, the princess fled to the UK, where the court found that Sheikh Mohammed continued to threaten her.

"He is a desert boy," Sheikh Mohammed said her in a telephone conversation regarding their 7-year-old son, Zayed, earlier this year. "Soon we will take him from you, you will see."

The Princess told the court she thought that her husband was planning to marry their daughter, Jalila, who is only 12, to Saudi Arabia's crown prince and ruler, Mohammed bin Salman. The court said it could not prove those allegations.

The court recognises both children at risk

Sir McFarlane has made clear that the court recognises both children at risk, making them wards of the court and issuing a protecting order to prevent Jalila from marrying.

Sheikh Mohammed and the Dubai and Emirati authorities have ensured the court that they will respect the judgment, according to the records.

Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum agreed that the children can continue living in the UK with their mother, and is now asking only to re-establish direct contact with them.

But while the judge declared "gratitude" for such assurances, he wrote, "I concluded that these instruments failed to provide the children with any significant level of protection from the risk of abduction within England and Wales."