Dubai ruler ordered to pay $734M in custody settlement
LONDON — London’s High Court has ordered the ruler of Dubai to pay his ex-wife and their two children about $734 million, according to court documents released Tuesday that said he posed “grave risk” to their safety.
The documents detail a custody settlement, dated Nov. 19, that appears to be one of the largest in British history.
The settlement also appears to resolve a two-year court battle between Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, who fled to London in 2019, seeking political asylum and a divorce.
Lawyers representing Mohammed and Princess Haya did not immediately return requests for comment Tuesday.
The princess’s flight from Dubai, the largest city of the United Arab Emirates, followed failed efforts to leave by two of Mohammed’s daughters from another marriage, Sheikha Shamsa and Sheikha Latifa.
Mohammed’s representatives have denied that the women are being held against their will.
In October, court documents revealed that Mohammed had used hightech software purchased from an Israeli company to hack the cellphones of his ex-wife, two of her attorneys and three other associates.
In the documents made public this week, Judge Philip Moor cited the hacking and “his kidnapping of Sheikha Shamsa and Sheikha Latifa,” among other factors, in saying that Mohammed “constitutes a grave risk” to the princess and their children.
Moor said Haya and the children, given their status, would have required security in any event, but he emphasized that “they are particularly vulnerable and need watertight security to ensure their continued safety and security in this country.”
The judge added that Haya, who was the most visible of the sheikh’s reported six wives, was not asking “for an award for herself other than for security” and compensation for items she had lost as a result of the end of her marriage.
Documents said the money was to go toward the upkeep of her British homes, future security and what she was owed for jewelry and racehorses. Mohammed must also pay nearly $4 million for the education of the couple’s two children, plus $13 million in arrears, the court documents said.
The divorce case of Haya and Mohammed has provided glimpses into the lives of Dubai’s royalty, one of the world’s wealthiest royal families. Haya left her husband in 2019. Last year, Haya raised the abduction allegations before Britain’s High Court as part of the custody case, as well as the hacking.
In the judgment in a British civil court case, a judge ruled that agents of Mohammed, using software known as Pegasus and sold by the Israel-based NSO Group, had carried out surveillance of several people.