The close friend who attempted to help Sheikha Latifa flee from imprisonment at the hands of her father, the ruler of Dubai, has described the “terrifying” moment their escape for freedom was intercepted by Indian special forces in 2018.
Latifa and her sister Sheikha Shamsa were abducted and detained against their will almost two decades apart by Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who is also vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to a High Court judgment published on Thursday.
The confirmation of longstanding rumours surrounding Sheikh Mohammed’s two daughters emerged from his legal battle with his sixth wife Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, the half-sister of King Abdullah II of Jordan, over their two children.
Shamsa, now 38, was abducted from the streets of Cambridge on 19 August 2000 at the age of 19 and has never been seen in public since.
Latifa fled Sheikh Mohammed’s family home in Dubai in June 2002 and February 2018 but was forcibly returned on both occasions.
Her high-profile attempt to escape in 2018 became public after a video account of her abduction and imprisonment was published on YouTube in March of that year.
In the video, Latifa said: “I’m making this video because it could be the last video I make.
“Pretty soon I’m going to be leaving somehow and I am not so sure of the outcome, but I’m 99 per cent positive it will work.
“And if doesn’t then this video can help me because all my father cares about is his reputation. He will kill people to protect his own reputation. He only cares about himself and his ego.”
The attempt to leave Dubai in 2018 was made with the help of Tiina Jauhiainen, who befriended Latifa after she began teaching her capoeira.
After several months of planning, Latifa and Jauhiainen – with the help of a former French spy, who is said to have charged £302,800 for his assistance – attempted to travel by boat into international waters.
But, on 4 March 2018, Indian special forces intercepted their boat and, according to Jauhiainen, tied Latifa’s hands behind her back, dragged her away and took her back to Dubai.
“That night when it all happened was terrifying,” Jauhiainen said on the Victoria Derbyshire programme. “It’s probably one of the scariest experiences I’ve ever had. The boat was stormed by Indian commandos who had machine guns. They were threatening to shoot us. It was extremely scary.
“Afterwards Latifa was dragged away, kicking and screaming, her pleas for asylum were ignored and after that, myself and the rest of the crew were kidnapped as well.
“She was actually repeating that she was seeking political asylum and they were ignoring her. Her last words were don’t take me back, rather shoot me here.”
That failed bid for freedom was not the first time Latifa sought to leave the emirate, having attempted to run away in 2002 before being stopped at the border with Oman and returned to the family home.
Latifa said in her 2018 video that she was held against her will after that failed escape until October 2005, during which time she was subjected to “constant torture”, according to the High Court judgment.
The findings come after Princess Haya fled from the UAE to London last year with her daughter Al Jalila, 12, and son Zayed, 8, prompting Sheikh Mohammed to apply for his children to be returned.
However, the princess responded by calling for the children to be made wards of the court, while also applying for a forced marriage protection order for her daughter.
Alongside the rulings, Princess Haya called for a series of statements of fact to be made regarding Sheikh Mohammed’s treatment of Latifa and Shamsa.
After the judgments were published, Sheikh Mohammed said: “As a head of government, I was not able to participate in the court’s fact-finding process. This has resulted in the release of a ‘fact-finding’ judgment which inevitably only tells one side of the story.”
Additional reporting by PA
