The United Nations has said it will discuss the alleged detention of Princess Latifa al-Maktoum, the daughter of the ruler of Dubai, with the United Arab Emirates after a series of videos with the 35-year-old, apparently held captive, were released as part of a documentary about the CBS News partner network BBC News.
Latifa al-Maktoum has not been heard from outside Dubai for months, and has been locked in a villa by her family for more than two years, BBC News reported.
In the videos, which were recorded over several months on a phone smuggled to al-Maktoum by her friend, the princess speaks directly to the camera, explaining how she was “held hostage”.
“All the windows are closed. I can’t open any windows. There are five policemen outside and two police women in the house and they can’t even go outside to get fresh air,” she said.
“Every day I worry about my safety and my life”
Al-Maktoum has reportedly been held captive since 2018, when he tried to flee Dubai to India in order to eventually seek political asylum in the United States.
Reuters
In the footage filmed before the escape attempt, she said her family had control of her passport and had not been allowed to leave the UAE since 2000.
She was intercepted trying to slip out of the country on a yacht with her friend, Tiina Jauhiainen, and was forcibly injected with tranquilizer and brought back to Dubai, she says in the videos.
Jauhiainen was taken back separately to the country and held in detention for two weeks.
“Every day I am worried about my safety and my life. I don’t really know if I will survive this situation,” al-Maktoum said in one of the phone videos. “The police threatened me that I would be in prison all my life and I would never see the sun again … I just want to be free.”
“The situation is getting more and more desperate every day”
After her release from prison and no news of Latifa, Jauhiainen founded the “Free Latifa” lobby group.
In 2019, with increasing international pressure, former UN Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson traveled to Dubai to seek evidence that al-Maktoum was still alive.
The two met at the home of another member of the royal family, al-Maktoum’s stepmother, Princess Haya, who later fled the country herself with her two children. It was the only time al-Maktoum was allowed to leave her villa during captivity, she said in the videos.
Princess Haya told Robinson that Latifa has mental health difficulties.
“I was initially misled by my good friend, Princess Haya, because she was misled. Haya began to explain that Latifa had a rather serious bipolar problem. And they said to me, in a way that was very convincing, “No.” I don’t want Latifa to go through other traumas, “Robinson said.
The British government is facing calls to get involved in the al-Maktoum case, as its father, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, has strong ties to Britain and visits frequently.
“I don’t know what she plans to do with me. I really don’t know. So the situation is getting more and more desperate every day and I’m really tired of it now,” al-Maktoum said in one of her videos.