'I'm a hostage': Haunting videos recorded by Dubai Princess Latifa al Maktoum in 'villa jail' after she was kidnapped by her father's henchmen following failed attempt to escape kingdom by jet ski
- Princess Latifa, 34, describes how her 2018 escape attempt ended in her brutal recapture in waters off India
- Speaking from her Dubai villa 'jail' she says her father's henchmen told her she will 'never see the sun again'
- The videos were taken in a bathroom on a phone, smuggled out and have been shared with MailOnline Princess Latifa al Maktoum, the kidnapped daughter of Dubai's ruler, has smuggled a series of haunting videos out of captivity, describing herself as being held 'hostage' by her father in the footage shared with Mail Online.
Speaking publicly for the first time in three years, the 34-year-old royal prisoner describes in vivid detail how her dramatic 2018 escape attempt involving jet skis and a yacht ended in her brutal recapture and forcible repatriation.
The Indian authorities handed her straight back to her billionaire father who has held her against her will ever since, with his henchmen promising her she would 'never see the sun again'.
In the most damming video filmed after her failed escape, the Princess says: 'I'm a hostage. And this villa has been converted into a jail. All the windows are barred shut.
'There's five policemen outside and two policewomen inside. I can't even go out to get fresh air. So basically, I'm a hostage.'
Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, on Derby day in 2017 with his estranged wife Princess Haya Last year the High Court in London found Latifa's father, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, 'ordered and orchestrated' her abduction and forced return to Dubai on two occasions, in 2002 and again in 2018.
Looking pale and frightened, she described the moment when the yacht on which she made her failed escape attempt, skippered by a hired former French spy she had hired, was stormed by Indian troops at sea.
Eight days into the voyage the Sheikh's military forces tracked her down 30 miles off Goa when the boat, Nostromo, was boarded by Indian special forces firing off stun grenades and tear gas.
'I kept saying you can't take me back,' she recalled. 'I want asylum and we're in international waters. You can't kidnap me. They were just on a mission and they were given orders.'
Latifa describes how she fought with two Emirati officers and bit one of them on the arm before her hands were zip tied and she was later tranquilised to keep her quiet.
She says: 'The same guy who tranquilised me came and then he tranquilised me again on my left arm. They put me on a stretcher, and as they were carrying me up steps of a private jet is when I passed out.
'When I woke up the jet had already landed in Dubai and I just felt really sad at this point. Everything I was working on for so many years to get my freedom was gone.'
The recordings were made at great risk to her personal safety and smuggled out of Dubai to her supporters in the UK who have her permission to release them in the hope it will secure her release.
The Princess – one of the Sheikh's 30 children by six different wives - tells how she has been imprisoned and threatened with being shot unless she cooperates with the official statements issued by her father.
Sheikh Mohammed and the Dubai Royal Court have claimed she is safe in the loving care of her family.
'They want me to break and they want propaganda from me,' she said. 'They also threatened me that I'll be in prison my whole life and I'll never see the sun again.'
The new footage, which will also be broadcast by BBC Panorama on Tuesday evening, fully supports a High Court judge's ruling last year that the Sheikh had ordered Latifa's kidnap and imprisonment, first in Dubai's grim Al Awir jail, then in the sealed villa.
India has never commented on its alleged role in the operation.
The ruler had previously been pictured alongside the Queen at horse racing events due to their shared passion for the sport, although the Queen was said to 'distance herself' from him following the High Court ruling.
The Queen with Sheikh Mohammed on Derby day in 2011
Princess Latifa and her best friend Tiina Jauhiainen in a selfie on the road to Oman on the first leg of their journey in 2018
Staged-managed photos taken in 2018 showed Latifa posing with the former Irish president and UN high commissioner for human rights Mary Robinson
The videos will also be a source of embarrassment to former Irish president Mary Robinson who visited Latifa in a stage-managed meeting and declared her a 'troubled young woman' without asking if she was being held against her will.
Ms Robinson, also a former UN High Commissioner for human rights, was labelled a 'willing pawn' in the charade, after she described Latifa as being 'in the loving care of her family'.
Ms Robinson now says she was ‘horribly tricked’ into attending the stag-managed meeting.
The former head of state said it had been a private meeting and that she had been surprised to see photos of her meeting Latifa had been released to the media.
Of the meeting Ms Robinson said she had been told the princess suffered from bipolar disorder and that she should not discuss the condition with her.
‘I was deeply tricked when the photographs went public, horribly tricked,’ she told the BBC. ‘I mean that was a total surprise. I was absolutely shocked.’
The meeting had been arranged by the Sheikh's second wife Princess Haya who was to later flee from Dubai in fear of her own life after her affair with one of her bodyguards was exposed.
Latifa said of Robinson: 'She said I was mentally troubled. She said that I was a troubled young woman, and I had a serious medical condition and I was getting help for it.
'That's implying that I have psychiatric problems. She knew that I was okay. She lied and it was all a set up.'
A diagram showing Latifa's daring escape plan from the seas around the United Arab Emirates
Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, right, with his estranged wife Princess Haya bint Al Hussein in 2017
All the videos were recorded in 2019 after a mobile phone was secretly smuggled into the villa where she is kept away from other members of the Dubai royal family and friends.
The Princess tells how her father, a close friend of the Queen, wants her to make a video where she says she is happy and living in Dubai voluntarily.
Latifa was able to secretly record the videos in the bathroom of her villa which is in the shadow of the Burj al Arab, one of the most famous buildings in Dubai.
She somehow made contact with her best friend, Finnish fitness instructor Tiina Jauhiainen, who took part in the failed escape bid, and lawyer David Haigh who together set up the Free Latifa campaign.
Tiina first met Latifa in late 2010 when she started giving her lessons in capoeira, a martial art, about five times a week. Over the years, Latifa confided in her and in 2017 asked for Tiina's help in trying to escape.
After plotting together in the glitzy Dubai Mall, according to Tiina's account, the pair drove for six hours to reach Muscat, the capital of Oman, where they got into a dinghy and boarded a US-flagged boat.
Latifa hoped to travel to India and then the United States to seek asylum, but on March 4, 2018 they were intercepted by commando units from India and the United Arab Emirates, Jauhiainen said.
Describing Latifa's state in captivity, Tiina told the BBC: 'She is so pale, she hasn't seen sunlight for months. 'She can basically move just from her room to the kitchen and back.'
The United Nations Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances has called for Latifa's case to be investigated.
The videos are being sent to the UN in the hope they will take a tougher stance against the Sheikh.
David Haigh, co-founder of the Free Latifa Campaign, told MailOnline: 'These videos go right to heart of the lie that Princess Latifa is happy being held in Dubai. She makes it very clear she was kidnapped, and she is a hostage.
'She has made these videos in the hope that the outside world will realise that she is being held against her will.'
Princess Latifa Maktoum's Identity Card (pictured above) which states her full name as Sheikha Latifa Mohd Rashed Almaktoum
Sheikh Mohammed's UK property empire includes the historic Dalham Hall which he bought in 2009 for £45m, to serve as a stud farm near to Newmarket race course
Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum's lavish collection of homes include a £75m Surrey estate, a historic Suffolk mansion and a sprawling Highland retreat with 63,000-acres of land.
He has also ploughed his extreme wealth into construction projects and sports, including one of the world's most successful thoroughbred horse racing stables, Godolphin, based near in Newmarket, Suffolk.
He bought Longcross estate on green belt land in Surrey in the 90s, as a place to escape the stifling summer heat in the Gulf.
Sheikh Mohammed later snapped up the historic Dalham Hall in 2009 for £45m, to serve as a stud farm near to the famous Newmarket race course.
His 63,000-acre Highland estate in Wester Ross was bought for £2million, 20 years ago. It boasts an incredible 58 bedrooms, a triple helipad and a 16-bedroom luxury hunting lodge.
His property portfolio has been mired in planning disputes with his Surrey mansion at the centre of claims portable cabins had been installed without permission to house his servants, and his Scottish estate was embroiled in a row over the construction of a hunting lodge.
In other business interests, the airline Emirates, which he launched, has a shirt sponsorship deal with Arsenal, worth £200million over four years - and has naming rights to their north London stadium.
His company DP World in 2019 acquired P&O Ferries for £322million, and in Essex he established the London Gateway. Built for £1.5billion, the deep water port on the Thames handles millions of shipping containers every year.
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