“In the summer of 2000, Shamsa escaped the family’s holiday home in England. She was 18 years old … and with a healthy mind,” wrote Princess Latifa, who claimed to be held hostage in a letter to CNN. her friend David Haigh, an activist for her release and part of International Detention, a legal advocacy NGO.
“She was enslaved and oppressed and physically abused by family members … She wanted to seek asylum in the UK, where she has a family who live there permanently. After a few months, she was abducted … She was dragged from she was calm and flew back to Dubai, “Latifa wrote in the February 2018 document.
The princess added that her sister was tortured, “kept secret without release, trial or charge.”
“She was tortured with her legs amputated, which I experienced with my own prison,” she wrote.
“Her ultimate goal is to be an emancipated person, to live with dignity, to have freedom of choice and freedom of movement … She wants the basic rights to which all human beings are entitled,” the princess continued.
The princess said her sister had “strong ties to England” and was “illegally abducted on British soil”.
“All I ask is that you pay attention to her case, because she could get her freedom, which is the only thing she wants in life,” she added.
In a statement sent to CNN, Cambridgeshire police confirmed that they had received a letter, “from February 2018 in connection with this case, which will be examined as part of the ongoing review”.
The force also said that it is investigating the recent BBC Panorama documentary, in which Latifa herself claims that she will be held hostage in Dubai.
The UK Foreign Office declined to comment on Thursday.
A recent statement from his family said that Latifa’s coverage “does not reflect the real position,” according to the UAE embassy in London.
The letter was obtained and handed over to the police by one of Latifa and Haigh’s cousins.
The group also submitted a “transcript of several video statements from Sheikha Latifa”, which were obtained by “smuggling, with great difficulty and danger, a mobile phone into the Sheikha Latifa prison in Dubai”, Haigh said in a letter to police and shared with CNN, using her Arabic title.
“Contact [with Latifa] it was maintained throughout 2019 and 2020. Contact was lost in the second half of 2020, “Haigh said.
The group also claims to have evidence that a British citizen was involved in the abduction of Princess Shamsa.
“I have not been able to release such evidence before because of what I thought was an unacceptable risk to the life and safety of Sheikha Latifa. However, now that contact has been lost, we are very concerned about her life and safety and we have decided to take the step of releasing the evidence obtained, “Haigh added.