Missing Dubai princess re-emerges in videos at ‘jail villa’

‘Every day I am worried about my safety and my life,’ she says of capture

A daughter of Dubai’s powerful ruler who tried to flee the country in 2018 only to be detained by commandos in a boat off India has re-emerged in new videos published Tuesday, saying she doesn’t know if she’s “going to survive this situation.”

The videos released by the BBC show Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum at a “jail villa,” apparently located in the skyscraper-studded citystate in the United Arab Emirates. Her father, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, also serves as the prime minister and vice-president in the hereditarily ruled UAE.

“I’m a hostage,” the sheikha says in one video. “This villa has been converted into jail. I can’t even go outside to get any fresh air.”

The government’s Dubai Media Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In 2018, The Associated Press reported how a friend and an ex-French spy helped Sheikha Latifa escape by boat, only to be captured off India.

The BBC said Sheikha Latifa recorded the videos in a bathroom at the villa over months on a phone she secretly received about a year after her capture.

“I don’t know when I’ll be released and what the conditions will be like when I’m released,” she says in a video. “Every day I am worried about my safety and my life.”

The videos, part of an episode of BBC’s “Panorama” investigative series that was to be broadcast Tuesday, also include an interview with Mary Robinson, a former president of Ireland and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Robinson appeared in photos with Latifa published by Emirati officials after the sheikha’s return to Dubai in 2018.