Princess Latifa feared dead as kidnap exposes dark side of popular tourist city Dubai

The release of Princess Latifa’s harrowing video of her claiming to be held hostage by her father has shone a light on the dark side of tourist hotspot, Dubai.

Authorities fear Dubai’s Princess Latifa may be dead after a video surfaced this week of her claiming to be held hostage by her father.

UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab described the smuggled footage of the 35-year-old as “very ­distressing” and said the world wants proof “she is alive and well”.

Princess Latifa has accused her father, the billionaire ruler of the UAE Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, of holding her in solitary confinement since thwarting an escape bid she made in 2018.

In the video, she claims: “I’m a hostage, I’m not free. I am imprisoned in this jail. My life is not in my hands.”

The harrowing video, thought to have been shot one year ago, lays bare the dark side to Dubai, which has long been seen as a playground of the rich and famous to holiday, especially amid the pandemic.

More recently the glitzy United Arab Emirate has been in the headlines after British reality TV stars and ‘rich-list’ social media influencers flouted ­UK lockdown rules to sun themselves on its beaches.

Meanwhile, as Sheikh Mohammed likes to portray himself as the enlightened ­monarch of the Arab world and a “people’s person”, his daughter insisted it was “bulls**t”.

Princess Latifa expressed fears for her safety in a harrowing video.

Latifa is one of the Sheikh’s 30 children by six wives.

In the video, aired on UK Panorama on Tuesday night, Princess Latifa said she has been kept in solitary confinement and revealed shocking details of her foiled escape from Dubai three years ago, in which she was attacked by commandos and drugged.

Sitting on the bathroom floor – where she said she filmed the video as it was the only room in the house with a lock on the door – she whispered to the ­camera: “I’m a hostage and this villa has been converted into a jail. All the windows are barred shut.

“There’s five policemen outside and two policewomen inside the house. And I can’t even go outside to get fresh air.

“I don’t know when I’ll be released and what the conditions will be like when I’m released. Every day I’m worried about my safety and my life. I don’t really know if I’m going to survive this.”

The beachfront property in a well-heeled neighbourhood is thought to be close to five-star hotels where Love Island reality TV stars including Gabby Allen, Molly-Mae Hague and Georgia Harrison partied this winter.

But Latifa’s jail could not be more ­different to the sun-drenched resorts the celebs have enjoyed amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since becoming one of the first places in the world to reopen to tourism, Dubai has boomed with visitors from around the world looking to party like it’s 2019.

Peak tourism has been in full swing, with influencers descending on the United Arab Emirates to enjoy a little taste of freedom while their home countries remain in lockdown.

Dubai has reopened, with influencers flocking there for ‘work trips’.

While mask-wearing and social distancing are required across Dubai, life in the tourism-reliant city looks much like normal, with its restaurants, hotels and mega-malls open for business.

For the first week of 2021, the London-Dubai air route ranked busiest in the world.

But then case numbers began to surge – in the past month alone, daily cases nearly tripled in Dubai – and Britain closed its travel corridor in response.

This has reduced visitor numbers and had a knock-on effect on Dubai’s all-important tourism industry.

Dubai has become home to bikini-clad influencers going on holiday.

Molly-Mae Hague posed for followers on a Dubai beach.

‘I NEED TO LEAVE’

Latifa is one of the Sheikh’s 30 children that he has by six wives. The siblings grew up in the sprawling royal ­residences as well as an English estate and attended private schools in ­Lebanon.

Sheikh Mohammed has turned his kingdom into a glittering paradise, with the world’s tallest skyscraper, top restaurants and luxury hotels attracting 80 million visitors a year.

But for Emirati women, strict laws make Dubai a gilded cage. As a daughter of its ruler, things were no different for Latifa.

Speaking in 2018 before she tried to flee, she revealed: “I’m not allowed to drive, I’m not allowed to travel or leave Dubai.

Princess Latifa being held hostage. Picture: BBC Panorama

“I haven’t left the country since 2000. I’ve been asking to go travelling, to study, to do anything normal. They don’t let me. I need to leave.”

Her UK-based maternal cousin ­Marcus Essabri – formerly Fatima – said life for the Sheikh’s children is miserable.

He said: “There was no family atmosphere, no warmth. The children were brought up by servants, and my aunt treated the staff like slaves.

“Underneath all that wealth and power, it was a very unkind place.”

In 2000, Latifa’s older sister Shamsa, then 18, escaped while the family were in Chobham, Surrey, for the horse racing season. But officials tracked her down in Cambridge two months later and “kidnapped her”.

Latifa said in 2018: “Basically she was on the streets and a bunch of guys in a car just drove up.

“They grabbed her kicking and screaming, and threw her in the car.

“She was driven to a helicopter, somehow ended up in France and from France she came to Dubai.

Latifa’s route during her 2018 escape bid before she was ‘recaptured’.

“She was drugged on the plane. It was a private jet so nobody was checking anything. She was drugged and brought back to Dubai.”

When the apparent abduction was investigated by British police, Dubai authorities prevented them from speaking to Shamsa. No further action was taken. In 2002, Latifa, then 16, tried to escape to Oman to get help for her imprisoned sister, but was caught at the border.

She claimed her father put her in prison for three years where she was tortured for hours at a time.

She said: “They told me, ‘Your father told us to beat you until we kill you.’ So all this public image that he’s trying to portray – human rights – it’s bulls**t.

“He’s the most evil person I’ve ever met in my life.”

Latifa suffered a breakdown after she was released from prison, but she continued to dream of escaping.

She hatched a daring plan with her friend Tiina Jauhiainen, a Finnish fitness trainer. They were to drive to Oman, take jet skis and an inflatable boat to a yacht waiting in international waters and sail to India.

From there Latifa would fly to the US and claim political asylum.

Before she fled, the princess recorded a YouTube video, saying she feared for her life, and added: “If you are watching this video, it’s not such a good thing. Either I’m dead or I’m in a very, very, very bad situation.”

A handout image provided by United Arab Emirates News Agency shows Latifa having a meal with Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland, in Dubai. Picture: Stringer/AFP

But a week into the voyage, in March 2018, ­commandos stormed the yacht off the coast near Goa, firing stun grenades and tear gas.

Ms Jauhiainen said: “Latifa was screaming and kicking. She kept saying, ‘Don’t take me back to the UAE. Just shoot me here.’”

In the video released this week, Latifa claimed she was tranquillised after trying to fend off one of her captors.

She said: “He grabs me. Lifts me up. Kicking and fighting, he’s much bigger than me. So I see that his sleeve is rolled up and arm exposed. I had one shot. Bit as hard as I can, and shake my head. And he screamed.

“This guy came with a small pouch and he took out the needle and he injected me in my arm.”

Latifa said she was stretchered on to a private jet and flown back to Dubai.

Fearing for the princess’s life, Ms Jauhiainen went public with the help of a human rights group.

Sheikh Mohammed was under mounting pressure from the United Nations over his daughter’s disappearance, and needed to show “proof of life”. Nine months later she was seen for the first time meeting former Irish president Mary Robinson. Afterwards the ex-UN envoy declared Latifa was “troubled” and suffering from ­bipolar disorder.

‘FORM OF TORTURE’

But Ms Robinson told Panorama that she was horrified to learn the private lunch, organised by the Sheikh’s sixth wife Princess Haya, 46, was in fact a publicity stunt.

She said: “I was misled, initially by my good friend Princess Haya, because she was misled.

“I was particularly tricked when the photographs went public. That was a total surprise … I was ­absolutely stunned.”

Princess Haya said the Sheikh had convinced her he had “rescued” Latifa from an extortion plot. In 2019, she said of claims Latifa was imprisoned: “If I thought for a second that any shred of this was true, you know, I wouldn’t put up with it or stand for it.”

But a few months later Haya and her two young children fled Dubai for London after an affair with her bodyguard was made public. She later filed for divorce.

Mr Essabri, however, believes Haya left her husband because she finally realised the truth about what had happened to Latifa.

There are now calls for a ‘proof of life’ as concern grows that Princess Latifa may be dead. Picture: BBC Panorama

Last year a High Court custody battle in London ruled in Haya’s favour, with the judge stating that it was clear the Sheikh’s regime had imprisoned his two daughters.

Meanwhile, Ms Jauhiainen has never given up on her friend. She formed ­campaign group Free Latifa and took the case to the UN. Finally, in April 2019, she had a phone call from a stranger, who put her in touch with the princess directly.

Ms Jauhiainen said: “When I first heard her voice, I was crying. I couldn’t help it. It was very emotional.”

With Ms Jauhiainen’s encouragement, ­Latifa started filming video ­messages from her bathroom – the only room where she was not watched.

Ken Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, called the video “shocking”.

He said: “This woman is imprisoned. It’s basically solitary confinement except for her jailers.

“Solitary confinement of that sort is broadly considered to be a form of torture as it becomes prolonged in the way this has right now.”

The princess spoke daily with Ms Jauhiainen, Mr Essabri and lawyer David Haigh, co-founder of the Free Latifa group, until suddenly, contact stopped ­several months ago.

The trio decided to make public Latifa’s videos in an effort to get the UN to petition for her release.

Ms Jauhiainen said: “We haven’t taken this decision lightly. There’s been some sleepless nights thinking about this. But it’s time to do something.

“I feel that she would want us to fight for her and not give up.”

The authorities in Dubai and the UAE insist Latifa is safe and being cared for by her family. But her ongoing silence has Tiina convinced otherwise.

She said: “We are extremely worried about her wellbeing. If we assume she was caught with the phone, her conditions now are probably a lot worse.”

This article originally appeared on The Sun and has been republished with permission