Dubai royals’ private nightmare exposed after judge’s landmark ruling

They were born into insane wealth and privilege – but a legal bombshell has revealed the secretly desperate lives of the UAE’s royal women.

They may have been born into unbelievable luxury, but behind the scenes, Dubai’s leader Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum subjected his female relatives to a living nightmare.

That’s the sensational finding of UK High Court judge Andrew McFarlane, who has ruled the sheik not only ordered the abduction of two of his daughters, but also waged a campaign of intimidation against his estranged wife.

The legal bombshell emerged after the ruler and his former spouse, Princess Haya bint al-Hussein, engaged in a bitter custody battle over their two children.

A UK judge ruled Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum was behind the abduction of two of his daughters. Picture: Fayez Nureldine/AFP

That particular saga began last April when Princess Haya fled her marriage and her home, escaping to London with the couple’s children, Jalila, 12, and Zayed, 8.

But that unprecedented court battle has also put the spotlight on the sheik’s treatment of two of his adult daughters, with Judge McFarlane accepting Princess Haya’s claims he was behind the mysterious kidnappings of both women.

PRINCESS SHAMSA

In August 2000, 19-year-old Princess Shamsa was grabbed by armed men on an English street, bundled into a car – and she has never been seen in public since.

The teen had been out with friends at a bar in Cambridge before allegedly being snatched by the men and later flown back to Dubai, where she is assumed to remain.

A month before the attack, she had secretly visited an immigration lawyer to seek advice on how to remain in the UK, and afterwards The Guardian reported she had been able to send an email to the same solicitor which included harrowing details of her life of captivity at the hands of her father.

In it, she claimed the sheik had sent “four Arab men” who were “carrying guns and threatening me”.

Princess Shamsa al-Maktoum was kidnapped in England at the age of 19. Picture: The Guardian

She claimed she was first transported to her father’s UK estate where she was drugged with “two injections and a handful of tablets” and the next day, she was taken to Dubai where she was “locked up until today”.

“I haven’t seen anyone, not even the man you call my father. I told you this would happen … I know these people, they have all the money, they have all the power, they think they can do anything,” the email allegedly stated.

“You said that if he kidnapped me, you would contact the Home Office and involve them. Now, I am not only asking you to report this immediately, I am asking your help and to involve the authorities (involve everyone).”

PRINCESS LATIFA

Less than two decades later, history would repeat itself when another daughter, Princess Latifa, also vanished.

Her story was all the more chilling following the emergence of a video she herself had recorded, which was to be released in the event of her disappearance.

“My father is the most evil person I have ever met in my life,” an emotional Latifa says in the clip.

“He’s pure evil. There’s nothing good in him.

“If you are watching this, it’s not such a good thing. Either I’m dead or I’m in a very, very, very bad situation.”

She also claimed she had previously attempted to escape at age 16 before being caught, imprisoned and drugged.

A handout image provided by United Arab Emirates News Agency (WAM) on December 24, 2018 shows Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum (left) having a meal with Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland, at the Latifa’s home in Dubai. Picture: AFP Photo/United Arab Emirates News Agency (WAM)/Stringer/Ho

Her daring and thwarted escape made international headlines after she enlisted the help of trusted sympathisers – including her martial arts instructor Tiina Jauhiainen and former French spy Hervé Jaubert – before driving across the border into Oman and boarding a boat headed for the Indian coast.

But the vessel was stormed by commandos who captured Latifa, and she was not seen for months on end.

There were widespread fears she had been killed or harmed, but in December 2018, on her 33rd birthday, Dubai’s Royal Court finally released a photo and an official statement regarding her whereabouts.

“Her Highness Sheikha Latifa is now safe in Dubai,” the statement reads.

5 months ago today she was sitting next to me full of dreams of a better future as we were heading towards #freedom... Today we must continue the fight to #FreeLatifa @haighdavid @RadhaStirling @tobycadman @hrw @amnesty @UNGeneva @UN_Women #help @escape_dubai pic.twitter.com/Q9ebQrJ5Uk

— Tiina Jauhiainen #FreeLatifa (@TiinaJauhiainen) July 24, 2018

“She and her family are looking forward to celebrating her birthday today, in privacy and peace, and to building a happy and stable future for her.”

But it did little to quell fears the princess was being held against her will.

And last year, Tiina Jauhiainen told news.com.au Princess Shamsa had been tortured, beaten on the feet with wooden canes, jailed and drugged for nearly two decades and had suffered so much she allegedly attempted suicide three times.

Ms Jauhiainen, who previously lived in Dubai, also claimed to have seen Shamsa in person on two occasions.

“(The) first time I met Shamsa was at the (royal family’s) private sporting complex (in 2011). She seemed dazed and very unhappy. She looked uncomfortable and sad and she was waiting for her PT to arrive,” she said. “She looked very, very unwell.”

Five years later, the Princess’ appearance had drastically changed.

“The second time I saw her was at (another) sister’s wedding in 2016. Shamsa had lost so much weight that she was unrecognisable, she looked like an anorexic, extremely skinny and Latifah told me that she had actually stopped eating,” Ms Jauhiainen said.

“She is like a zombie.”

PRINCESS HAYA

Then, last April, the sheik’s second official wife, 45-year-old Princess Haya, became the latest royal woman to flee and make allegations of torture and intimidation.

But she was able to escape for good, and score a major victory over her ex-husband after he dropped his legal bid to have their children returned to Dubai and unsuccessfully tried to stop the court issuing a fact-finding judgment on his wife’s allegations.

Citing court documents which were unsealed for the first time today, AP reported Judge McFarlane as saying the ruler used the apparatus of the state “to threaten, intimidate, mistreat and oppress with a total disregard for the rule of law”.

Princess Haya Bint al-Hussein has managed to escape her husband. Picture: Adrian Denis/AFP

He said Princess Haya’s allegations about the threats and abductions met the civil standard of proof on the balance of probabilities, but that her claim the ruler had made arrangements for their then-11-year-old daughter to marry Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had fallen “well short of the required standard” of proof.

– with AP copy