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Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Raschid al-Maktum: "I am a hostage"
Photo: ALI HAIDER / EPA-EFE
The story of Sheikha Latifa is reminiscent of a Hollywood spy thriller: a beautiful princess from Dubai, locked in a golden palace, an overpowering father who holds her captive and a former French spy who finally helps the woman to escape.
On a jet ski.
However, there is no ending like in the film.
Latifa is the daughter of the Emirati Prime Minister and Emir of Dubai, Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktum.
In February 2018, she tried to leave Dubai and made it to one yacht.
The influential father is said to have stopped them with a special command off the Indian coast.
Latifa was forcibly brought back, official recordings from the Emir's palace were supposed to prove later that she was fine and happy.
Previously unknown video recordings that were leaked to the British broadcaster BBC now paint a different picture.
"I'm a hostage and this villa has been turned into a prison," says the Sheikha in one of the videos she is said to have recorded in the bathroom.
According to her, it is the only room accessible to her that can be locked.
The governments of Dubai and the United Arab Emirates did not comment on the videos on request, the BBC said.
In the videos, the young woman reports how she is watched by police officers and that she fears for her life.
Latifa is said to have secretly recorded her on her cell phone for friends more than a year after her spectacular escape attempt.
The footage was made available to the BBC by Latifa's supporters as they were concerned about the safety of the Sheikha.
Another Emir daughter also wanted to flee
Latifa had already recorded a video before she fled.
“I'll be going soon.
I don't know if it will work, but I'm 99 percent sure, «she said at the time.
It has now been viewed almost five million times.
In addition to Sheikha Latifa, her older sister Shamsa was kidnapped in Cambridge in 2000 and brought back to Dubai after she tried to break away.
The human rights organization Human Rights Watch, among others, has called for the two to be released.
Critics repeatedly accuse the Emirates of human rights violations and torture.
As in neighboring Saudi Arabia, the opposition is being suppressed and the Internet is being censored.
Amnesty International has also observed that women's rights do not play a major role in the country.
Wife Haya has left
A British court last year found Sheikh Mohammed responsible for kidnapping his two daughters and intimidating one of his wives.
The court ruling confirms allegations made by Princess Haya Bint al-Hussein, one of the sheikh's wives.
In one case, the court even found torture.
Haya is the sixth wife of the emir and half-sister of the Jordanian king Abdullah II. She is already the third woman who tries to escape from the emir's environment.
She lives in exile and has been appointed a Jordanian diplomat.
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mrc / dpa
