Princess Latifa: Instagram image appears to show Dubai ruler’s daughter in Spain
A Dubai princess who was seized at gunpoint in 2018 after fleeing the Gulf sheikhdom has been pictured in an Instagram post that appears to show her as being in Spain as part of what was described as a “European holiday”.
It is the first time that Princess Latifa has been pictured outside Dubai since her escape via a yacht was dramatically cut short by a commando raid three years ago, although the picture only shows her inside Madrid’s main airport.
The image, published on an Instagram account on Sunday belonging to Sioned Taylor, a Briton based in Dubai, pictured Latifa with her arm around Taylor’s shoulder. No further visual information, however, confirmed when the photo was taken.
Taylor’s caption, punctuated by a smiley face emoji, reads: “Great European holiday with Latifa. We’re having fun exploring!” Comments by Taylor acknowledged the location of the image as Barajas airport in the Spanish capital.
In another comment, when asked about whether Latifa was ok, Taylor replied “she is great” with a thumbs up emoji. Other, more sceptical, questions in response to the latest in a string of staged images showing the princess apparently enjoying a greater degree of freedom were ignored.
Taylor had originally acted as a chaperone for Latifa, according to a source who knows her, but had become close to the princess before her flight in 2018. Late last month, she posted images of Sheikha Latifa in May showing her at two local Dubai malls, only her second appearance in public for three years.
UN experts and human rights activists had called on Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, to provide information about the health and wellbeing of his daughter, who has accused him of years of abuse, prompting her escape attempt in 2018.
The sheikh has repeatedly denied all allegations of mistreating Latifa, although a UK family court found in a judgment published in March 2020 that she was abducted off the coast of India in March 2018 after trying to flee Dubai on a yacht. After that she had been detained under house arrest, in conditions “akin to a prison”.
Latifa’s plight was highlighted as part of a child residence battle in the British courts involving Sheikh Mohammed and his second “official” wife, Haya bint al Hussein, who had fled to the UK in 2019 with her two children. Haya’s lawyers argue that the treatment of Latifa helped justified her demands in relation to her children, claims contested by Mohammed’s legal representatives.
A lawyer for the Free Latifa campaign group welcomed the development.
“We are pleased to see Latifa seemingly having a passport, travelling and enjoying an increasing degree of freedom; these are very positive steps forward,” David Haigh, co-founder of the Free Latifa campaign. “I can also confirm that several of the campaign team have been contacted directly by Latifa.”
Latifa has begun to send letters and make phone calls to some friends and allies but scepticism remains whether, despite the apparent loosening of restrictions, she is able to act with some independence, given the long history of complaints from the princess.
The princess, 35, had tried to flee Dubai in secret in February 2018, driving with a friend to neighbouring Oman before boarding a yacht, which sailed off into the Indian Ocean. Eight days later, the yacht was stormed by Indian commandos, in a dramatic raid 30 miles off the coast of Goa, conducted by the country’s military at the request of Sheikh Mohammed.
Latifa was taken and returned to Dubai. Videos released in February by the BBC had Princess Latifa describing herself as being in a villa that “has been converted into a jail”.
The dramatic would-be sea escape and its aftermath intruded into the carefully controlled image maintained by the family of Sheikh Mohammed, who is believed to have about 25 children from multiple wives. Some of his sons and daughters figure prominently in local media and online, but others are rarely seen.
Sheikh Mohammed serves as the vice-president and prime minister, as well as being the hereditary ruler of the United Arab Emirates, a federation of seven sheikhdoms including Dubai, of which the most powerful is neighbouring Abu Dhabi.