UK court rules UAE ruler kidnapped daughters

LONDON (AA) - The United Arab Emirates (UAE) vice president, prime minister and Ruler of Dubai is responsible for kidnapping and detaining his two daughters, according to a ruling published Thursday.

The finding surfaced after a battle to reveal the high court judgements stemming from a dispute between Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and his wife Haya bint al Hussein who left him for the U.K. in 2019.

The ruling by Sir Andrew McFarlane, president of the family division of the high court in England and Wales, records the disappearances of Princess Shamsa and Princess Latifa in 2000 and 2018, respectively.

Shamsa was kidnapped from Cambridge in 2000 at the age of 19, according to the judge. Latifa was seized by Indian army commandos from the Indian Ocean in 2018, when she was 32, and returned to Dubai by force.

The judgements by the civil court also found al-Maktoum orchestrated a campaign of intimidation and harassment against his ex-wife.

Haya fled to London last year with the couple’s two young children and when al-Maktoum wanted the children to return to Dubai, the matter landed in U.K. courts.

Haya said al-Maktoum wanted to force one of her daughters to enter an arranged marriage with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – fingered as being the person who ordered the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by various reports, including UN rapporteur Agnes Callamard.

According to the judgement, al-Maktoum attempted to have Haya abducted by helicopter, arranged for guns to be left in her bedroom, taunted her about her adulterous relationship with a bodyguard, divorced her without telling her and threatened to seize the children.

“I have ... concluded that, save for some limited exceptions, the mother has proved her case with respect to the factual allegations that she has made," McFarlane said.

“These findings, taken together, demonstrate a consistent course of conduct over two decades where, if he deems it necessary to do so, the father [Sheikh Mohammed] will use the very substantial powers at his disposal to achieve his particular aims.”