Billionaire Dubai ruler ordered kidnap of daughters and tortured them in palace before wife Princess Haya fled to UK
THE billionaire ruler of Dubai ordered the kidnap of his two daughters - one on the streets of Britain - before locking them up and torturing them behind his palace walls, a High Court judge has found.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, 70, "ordered and orchestrated" the abduction of Princess Shamsa in 2000 and her sister Princess Latifa twice, in 2002 and in 2018, according to a judgement by the court.
The High Court found that neither princess has recently been seen and they both reportedly remain locked up in their father's palace.
The ruling also found the sheikh waged a campaign of 'fear and intimidation' against his sixth wife Princess Haya, who recently fled to Britain fearing he would kill her.
Sir Andrew McFarlane, the most senior family judge in England and Wales, explained in his judgement that "a substantial element in the extreme concern (Princess Haya) has for the future well-being of her children arises from her belief that Shamsa and Latifa have been and are deprived of their liberty on an open-ended basis".
Judge McFarlane published his findings after a 10-month case, which began last year when Princess Haya, 45, fled to the UK with the couple's daughter Al Jalila, 12, and son Zayed, eight.
In May, Sheikh Mohammed sent his lawyers to the High Court demanding the "summary return" of his children to Dubai.
Princess Haya also asked for the High Court for permission to stay in Britain as she feared for her life if she returned home.
The father has conducted a campaign, by various means, with the aim of harassing, intimidating or otherwise putting the mother in great fear.
Judge Andrew McFarlane
The sheikh later dropped his bid to take the children back to Dubai, and fought unsuccessfully to prevent the fact-finding judgement on his wife's allegations.
The judge said Shamsa, now 38, was abducted from the streets of Cambridge by henchmen in 2000 and has now been stripped of her freedom.
Princess Latifa, 34, was initially abducted on her father's orders at the border of Oman after running away in 2002, the court was told.
The court heard she was then seized from a yacht in the Indian Ocean while fleeing Dubai in 2018.
Latifa's high-profile attempt to flee the UAE in 2018 became public after a video account of her abduction and imprisonment at the hands of her father was published on YouTube in March of that year.
She said in her 2018 video that she was held against her will after that escape attempt until October 2005, during which time she was subjected to "constant torture".
The ruling stated Princesss Haya "proved her case with respect to the factual allegations that she has made".
The judge also said Haya's allegations that the sheikh had later tortured his abducted daughters were proved.
Judge McFarlane said: "Firstly, that in August 2000 the father ordered and orchestrated the unlawful abduction of his daughter Shamsa from the United Kingdom to Dubai.
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"Secondly, that, on two occasions in June 2002 and February 2018, the father ordered and orchestrated the forcible return of his daughter Latifa to the family home in Dubai.
"With respect to both Shamsa and Latifa it is asserted that following their return to the custody of the father's family they have been deprived of their liberty.
"The father has conducted a campaign, by various means, with the aim of harassing, intimidating or otherwise putting the mother in great fear."