Social media photos show Dubai princess at malls

Photos on social media appear to show a missing Dubai princess who months earlier described herself in a video as being held against her will out at two major malls in the citystate.

Images published by a woman identified in British media as former Royal Navy member Sioned Taylor show Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum at the Mall of the Emirates at a movie theatre there, as well as at a restaurant at Dubai Mall near the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.

The photos corresponded to those locations, with the Mall of the Emirates image likely taken in May due to the film being advertised in it. Taylor did not respond to a request for comment. The government’s Dubai Media Office did not acknowledge the release of the images. The photos’ pedestrian captions belie the fact that United Nations experts and human rights activists had called on Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, to provide information on his daughter.

Sheikha Latifa, 35, had tried to flee the country in 2018 only to be detained by commandos in a boat off India. Videos released in February by the BBC had Sheikha Latifa describing herself as being in a villa that “has been converted into a jail”. “I don’t know when I’ll be released and what the conditions will be like when I’m released,” she says in one of the videos. “Every day I am worried about my safety and my life.” The dramatic would-be sea escape and its aftermath intruded into the carefully controlled image.