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This undated image from video in an unknown location shows Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum speaking into a cell phone camera. The United Nations human rights body said Wednesday, February 17, 2021, it will seek information from the United Arab Emirates about the daughter of the powerful ruler of Dubai after she said in video messages that she was imprisoned in a high-security villa. (# FreeLatifa Campaign – Tiina Jauhiainen / David Haigh via AP)
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This undated image from video in an unknown location shows Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum speaking into a cell phone camera. The United Nations human rights body said Wednesday February 17, 2021 that it will seek information from the United Arab Emirates about the daughter of the powerful ruler of Dubai after she said in video messages that she was imprisoned in a high-security villa. (# FreeLatifa Campaign – Tiina Jauhiainen / David Haigh via AP)
LONDON (AP) – Supporters of an Emirati princess who has been held against her will for nearly three years are urging Joe Biden to put pressure on her father to release the woman, saying the US president one of the few world leaders with the prestige to gain its freedom.
The case of Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum made international headlines on Tuesday after the BBC released excerpts from video diaries she said were recorded in a locked bathroom in the Dubai villa where she was being held. Sheikha Latifa was detained by commandos off the coast of India in 2018 after trying to flee Dubai on a yacht.
Friends say they are concerned about Sheikha Latifa’s safety as she has not been heard from since she stopped responding to text messages six months ago. The 35-year-old princess is the daughter of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the hereditary ruler of Dubai who is also Prime Minister and Vice President of the United Arab Emirates.
David Haigh, a longtime human rights defender in Dubai and a supporter of Sheikha Latifa, said the princess’s backers were encouraged by Saudi Arabia’s recent decision to release Loujain al-Hathloul, a women’s rights activist who has been detained for three years. Allegations that supporters said were politically motivated. Her release came after the Biden government, which said it will emphasize human rights in foreign policy, halted a number of arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
“The only level of people that will have enough influence to effectively force Latifa’s father to open her prison are people like Joe Biden, and very few of them,” Haigh told The Associated Press. “And he has also shown that he can do it with Saudi.”
The matter is also particularly sensitive in Britain due to its economic and historical ties with Dubai and the UAE, which have built hotels and resorts to diversify an economy that was once based on exploiting the Emirates’ energy reserves. Sheikh Mohammed is the founder of the successful horse racing stable Godolphin and is friends with the British Queen Elizabeth II.
The mysterious ruler’s family life hit the headlines in 2019, when his estranged wife, Princess Haya, fled to London and sought custody of her two children through British courts. Last year, a British judge ruled that the Sheikh had waged a campaign of fear and intimidation against Princess Haya and ordered the kidnapping of two of his daughters, including Sheikha Latifa.
Sheikha Latifa’s former personal trainer, Tiina Jauhiainen, told the AP that her friend recorded the video diaries on a phone smuggled into her about a year after her detention.
In the videos, the princess says she is “concerned about my safety and my life”.
‘They want propaganda from me. They wanted me to make a video and said that I am happy and volunteered here. And I declined, ”she said in a video obtained by The Associated Press. “I don’t know what can happen to me and how long this will take. And if they decide to release me, like how my life would be. But I am not at all safe. “
Her supporters chose to make the videos public out of fear for her life, Jauhiainen said.
“We are very concerned that she was caught with the phone and she may have ended up in a worse situation than before,” Jauhiainen told AP. So we hope that with this evidence we will finally secure her freedom. ”
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Wednesday it “would raise these new developments in the UAE.”
“Other parts of the UN human rights system with relevant mandates may also become involved if they have analyzed the new material or received specific allegations,” Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the high commissioner, told the BBC.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called the videos “very poignant” and said he supported a UN investigation. Raab said Britain was “concerned” but suggested there was little the government could do because Latifa is not a British citizen.
Sheikh Mohammed and the Dubai Royal Court have said Latifa is safe under the loving care of her family. The Dubai Media Office of the UAE government did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
Rodney Dixon, a London-based attorney for Sheikha Latifa, said he hopes the videos will convince the authorities in Dubai to release a client who says she just wants to be free. Dixon, who helped secure the release of a British investigator who was imprisoned in the UAE for espionage in 2018, pushed for diplomacy.
“Of course, steps can be taken to impose sanctions, take other measures, as I said before,” Dixon told AP. “But why would you go down that road if we have a simple solution here, which must be followed immediately. Why delay it any longer, get involved in legal proceedings, litigation? This will never ultimately benefit anyone in the long run. Better to find out now. ″
“Do the right thing,” he said. “Let go of the princess. ″