Princess Latifa of Dubai, who claimed to be her father’s hostage, photographed ‘on vacation’ in Spain

A Dubai princess who raised the concern of a United Nations committee after being arrested as she tried to flee the kingdom in 2018 appeared on Monday morning in a photo posted to social media, accompanied by text about being in Spain in a few “European holidays”.

An image on Instagram posted by a woman identified by UK media as the former member of the Royal Navy Sioned Taylor shown Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum at Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport.

Taylor’s text, accompanied by a smiley face emoji, reads as follows: “Great European vacation with Latifa. We have fun exploring! “. Taylor’s comments alluded to where the photo was taken, which matches other images of the airport.

Asked about Sheikha Latifa, Taylor wrote in another comment that “that’s awesome,” with a thumbs-up emoji.

Taylor, the UAE embassies in London and Madrid, as well as the media office in Dubai, initially did not respond to requests for comment on Monday. The Associated Press.

Taylor also shared images of Sheikha Latifa in May in two malls in Dubai.

The informal photos collide with the fact that United Nations experts and human rights activists have sued the ruler of Dubai, the Sheikh. Mohammed ben Rachid al Maktoum, to provide information about your daughter.

Sheikha Latifa, 35, tried to flee the country in 2018, but she was stopped by commandos on a ship near India.

In videos published in February by the BBC, Sheikha Latifa claimed to be in a village “turned into a prison”.

“I’m recording this video from a bathroom because it’s the only room with a door that I can block. (…) I am a hostage and this village has become a prison. All the windows are closed with bars, I can’t open any of them, ”Al Maktoum said in one of the videos.

“Every day I worry about my safety and my life. I don’t know if I will survive this situation, ”said the princess.

Latifa first attempted to escape Dubai when she was 16, but started planning her most serious escape attempt in 2011., after maintaining contact with the French businessman Hervé Jaubert, according to the British public channel.

February 24, 2018 The princess got on an inflatable boat, along with Tiina Jauhiainen, who had been her martial arts instructor, and they sailed to international waters, where a yacht with an American flag awaited them..

Eight days later, off the coast of India, the ship was attacked by “commandos” who used smoke grenades, They pointed guns at the two women and sent Latifa, who had not been heard from so far, to Dubai, according to the account released by the BBC.

The dramatic escape attempt at sea and its aftermath have darkened the carefully controlled image of Sheikh Mohammed’s family, who would have dozens of children of various wives. Some of their sons and daughters are highly visible in local media and on the Internet, while others are rarely seen.

The Sheikh’s family has become a topic of conversation again in 2020. Next, a British judge found that the Sheikh had waged a campaign of fear and intimidation against a estranged wife and ordered the kidnapping of two of his daughters, including Sheikha Latifa. The decision was part of a battle for legal custody between Sheikh Mohammed and his wife Princess Haya, daughter of the late King Hussein of Jordan.

In these proceedings, the High Court of England found proven, among other facts, that the Sheikh “ordered and orchestrated the forcible return of his daughter Latifa to the family home in Dubai” on two occasions, in June 2002 and February 2018.

“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 Indian coast.“Describe the sentence.

The judge also points out that in August 2000 the emir organized the “kidnapping” of his daughter Shamsa to take her from the UK to Dubai.

Sheikh Mohammed is also vice president and prime minister of United Arab Emirates, a federation of seven kingdoms in the Arabian Peninsula and where power is hereditary.

(With information from AP Yes EFE)

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