Runaway Dubai princess ‘brought back’ to emirate

Dubai: A Dubai princess who announced in a video published in March she was fleeing the emirate has since been “brought back”, a source close to the Dubai government said.

“What I can confirm is they took her and she was brought back,” the source said on condition of anonymity yesterday.

The source said he did not know where the royal – 32-year-old Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum – was tracked down or by whom, only that she was now “with her family” and “doing excellent”.

Sheikha Latifa, a daughter of Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, first appeared in a YouTube video in March, announcing she was about to flee.

“I’m making this video because it could be the last video I make,” she began.

Dressed simply in a T-shirt with her hair pulled back and sitting by a curtained window, the young woman appeared to be filming the video herself.

She said she was the daughter of the Dubai ruler and an Algerian mother, Horriya Ahmed, and that she had tried to escape in years past.

She said her leaving was “the start of me claiming my life, my freedom”.

The source close to Dubai’s government said it was a “private matter” that had been “exploited”.

“It is a domestic issue that transformed into a soap opera that transformed into a rampaging scheme to tarnish the reputation of Dubai and Sheikh Mohammed,” the source said.

Over the past month, Latifa’s cause has been taken up by a UK-based group called Detained in Dubai, which claims to assist victims of injustice across the United Arab Emirates.