John Tenth
02/18/2021 3:54 PM
Clarín.com
World
Updated 02/18/2021 3:54 PM
"
I am recording this video from a bathroom, because it is the only room with a door that I can lock. (...) I am a hostage and
this villa has become a prison
. All the windows are closed with bars, I cannot open none,
"says the woman in the video.
She is sitting against the background of a beige wall with a black stripe.
He speaks in a low voice in a tone that can
not hide his fear
.
The person in question is Latifa al-Maktoum,
the daughter of the Sheikh
of Dubai and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, Mohamed al-Maktoum, who is being held in the country after she tried to flee in 2018 after accusing her father of mistreatment. and violence.
The woman's journey began on February 24, 2018, when she got on an inflatable boat with her former martial arts instructor to flee Dubai.
Both sailed to international waters, where
a yacht operating under the US flag awaited them.
Eight days later, off the coast of India, the vessel was intercepted by a "commando group".
The troops used smoke grenades and detained both women.
Then the sheikh's daughter was returned to Dubai.
Since then, no one knows where he is.
In another part of the recording, which was recently broadcast by the BBC, the young woman also added that "every day she worries about her life", and that she
does not know "if she will survive
.
"
It is the first news of the 35-year-old woman
after almost 3 years
.
According to his friends, he secretly recorded these messages "for several months", but communications
"have stopped"
.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum with his sixth wife, Haya bint Al Hussein.
The woman fled to London in 2019 and filed for divorce.
Photo: REUTER
The appearance of the video is a further blow to the image of Mohamed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the 71-year-old emir who
turned Dubai into a global city
and cultivated an image of a forward-thinking liberal Arab leader.
However, family scandals have eroded his status and exposed a pattern of behavior that
reads almost like a manual of psychological terror
.
From oil country to luxury tourism mecca
Until a few years ago, Mohamed bin Rashid al-Maktoum shone unsullied and far from scandals.
Is that the sheik
was a story of success
.
He was responsible for turning Dubai into a global brand, a 40-year process in which it went from being a fishing village to becoming an international tourism mecca renowned for its extravagant luxury.
Dubai has an ATP tennis tournament, in which figures such as Novak Djokovic have played.
Photo REUTERS
Like the vast majority of countries in the region, the evolution of Dubai cannot be explained without mentioning oil.
The kingdom began its growth thanks to the
discovery of its wells in the 1960s
.
However, it was less fortunate than some of its neighbors: its reserves ended up being considerably smaller than expected, forcing them to investigate
alternative
accelerated ways
to diversify their economy
.
It was his performance in this process that
catapulted Mohamed al-Maktoum
, the Sheikh born in Dubai and educated in England and Italy,
to stardom
.
Following his stay abroad, he assumed his first post in the Emirati government in 1971.
He became Prime Minister of the kingdom in 2006 after the death of his brother, Maktoum bin Rashid al-Maktoum.
A group of tourists walk through the Dubai Mall near the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world seen in the background.
Photo: BLOOMBERG
Although the kingdom had embarked on this transition for several decades, it can be said that the formal starting point was in 2007 with the launch of the Dubai Government Strategy.
This project headed by al-Maktoum turned out to be the roadmap to embark on a path where the commitment
to global luxury tourism
became a central point.
It must be said that the sheik not only insisted on political aspects.
His entrepreneurial prowess was behind some of the
kingdom's most iconic achievements
: Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, Ski Dubai, an artificial ski slope, and the Palm Islands Project, a series of artificially constructed archipelagos in palm tree shape.
The scale and ambition of this project managed to attract world-renowned figures.
From Brad Pitt and David Beckham to Naomi Campbell,
everyone wanted their artificial island in the kingdom
.
Mohamed al-Maktoum was also responsible for the creation of Emirates Airlines, the fourth largest airline in the world and the largest in the Middle East.
Aerial view of the Palm Islands Project in Dubai.
Photo: AFP
The sheikh turned Dubai into a global brand by dint of one publicity stunt after another.
He managed to establish an ATP tennis tournament and has brought together iconic figures from entertainment and sports, from Novak Djokovic and Cristiano Ronaldo to Madonna and Elton John.
The sheikh's personal fortune is also large.
Estimated at around
$ 14 billion
,
Forbes
magazine
once ranked him
the fifth richest monarch in the world
.
He is known for being an enthusiastic horse breeder.
He also owns a yacht called Dubai, which is one of the largest in the world.
The ship is 162 meters long and can hold up to 115 people.
It has a room where 90 people can dine and a 10-meter long swimming pool.
The yacht Dubai, which belongs to Sheikh Mohamed bin Rashid al Maktoum.
Photo: AFP
It also has
a nightclub, a cinema, 20 jet skis,
a submarine and a squash court.
Beyond his achievements, the image of the emir began to crack in 2018 when it was learned that his daughter who sought to flee the kingdom had been trapped by her father and forced to return.
But this is not the only scandal in which the sheikh has been involved.
In 2001, a riding instructor of a daughter of the Sheikh accused him of having kidnapped the woman, who was living in England at the time, to take her back to Dubai.
A British court launched an investigation into the matter, but could not find any solid evidence on the matter.
Cristina Kirchner with Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al.
(Marcos Brindise / REUTERS)
Former Argentine President Mauricio Macri Sheikh Mohamed bin Rashid al Maktoum.
Photo: DYN
In 2006, he was accused of having encouraged the
kidnapping and enslavement of hundreds of children
who were employed by the kingdom as a jockey in a camel race.
However, the most severe blow to his reputation came in 2019 when one of his wives, named Haya bint Al Hussein, abruptly decided to flee the kingdom along with the two daughters he had with him.
From London, he filed a divorce suit against the Sheikh and exposed a face that until then the strongman of Dubai had
always
managed to
keep in the shadows
.
The escape that turned on the fan
While there is no data on the sheikh's personal life on the kingdom's official page, there are some data that are known.
He has at least 6 wives and 23 children
.
His first wife, and the mother of 12 of his children, was a first cousin.
Haya bint Al Hussein was seen in public with her husband in the open, a rarity in the Arab world.
Photo: EFE
From the beginning of their relationship, it was clear that Haya bint Al Hussein was radically different from the other five wives of the Sheikh.
For starters, the official version says that they fell in love from their common passion for horses, a singularity in a region where arranged marriages are still common.
Al Hussein is also a
member of royalty from birth
: his father was King Hussein of Jordan.
The woman and Mohamed al-Maktoum were married in 2004. They have a daughter born in 2007, and a son born in 2012.
Al Hussein was always an autonomous person who challenged the strong mandate that existed on women.
Educated at Oxford, it was clear that she was not going to accept the fate of seclusion.
She was seen in public and
uncovered with her husband
.
He also had a life outside of state dynamics, both in the UN and in various NGOs.
It was in July 2019, after al-Maktoum appeared alone at an equestrian event, that rumors began about the couple's condition and the woman's whereabouts.
It didn't take long for confirmation that
Al Hussein had fled Dubai
with his two children and was in London.
From there she asked her ex-husband for a divorce, a fact that caused a stir in the country.
It is now known that the Jordanian woman suffered multiple instances of torment at the hands of her husband and his security apparatus, and that the abduction of her daughter Latifa al-Maktoum perpetrated by the Sheikh was a turning point in the unleashing of the situation. .
According to the Spanish newspaper
El País
, the sheikh's wife initially
accepted her husband's version
that he had rescued her daughter from an extortion attempt.
Haya bint al-Hussein took refuge in London with her two children.
From there, she filed for divorce from her husband, Mohamed al-Maktoum, the Sheikh of Dubai.
Photo: AP
Haya bint Al Hussein reportedly turned to a UN colleague to speak with the young woman and try to quell rumors that she was being held against her will.
The result, however, was quite the opposite.
The woman discovered the truth about the situation: that her husband
had kidnapped her daughter and was holding her captive
so that she could not get away from him.
In March 2020, a British judge awarded the woman a first win.
In a letter, she accepted the accusations of kidnapping and violence perpetrated by her husband against the women in her family.
Among other things, it established that the sheikh
"ordered and orchestrated the forced return of his daughter
Latifa to the family home in Dubai" on two occasions: the first was in June 2002, while the second was in February 2018.
Pope Francis with Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
at the Presidential Palace in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, in February 2019.
"In 2002 the return took place from the border of Dubai with Oman, while in 2018 it was done with an armed commando at sea near the coast of India", described the sentence.
The judge also highlights that in August 2000 the emir organized the "kidnapping" of his daughter Shamsa to take her from the UK to Dubai.
Thus, he validated the flight from the country of Al Hussein and made public the multiple instances of violence that the woman suffered, an instance that the sheikh sought to block by all possible means.
According to this writing, on at least two occasions, Al Hussein
found a weapon placed on his pillow
without the safety.
In another instance, a helicopter landed in her garden and she was threatened with taking her to a prison in the desert.
The woman also claimed to have received numerous anonymous messages threatening to take her children from her.
Despite this, the story is not over, as custody of the couple's children has yet to be determined.
It is undeniable, however, that the sentence is a
brutal blow to the sheikh's reputation
.
Look also
The daughter of the emir of Dubai denounces a kidnapping and a diplomatic crisis breaks out with Great Britain
United Arab Emirates, a money paradise ruled by friends of Juan Carlos I, King Emeritus of Spain
