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Sheikh Set Israeli Spyware on Ex-Wife in Custody Battle, Court Says
The ruler of Dubai was found to have hacked the phones of his former wife, a Jordanian princess, and of her lawyers. One of those targeted is a member of the House of Lords in Britain. When the hyper-wealthy ruler of the Middle Eastern emirate of Dubai found himself embroiled in a British court case…
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‘Latifa isn’t free — she’s just in a bigger prison than before’
The ex-wife of Dubai’s leader has reason to doubt the tale of his prodigal daughter — she too was held captive by him, she claims. Reclining by a window in her hilltop residence outside Beirut, Randa al-Banna took a puff of her slim cigarette and looked out over the Mediterranean. The former wife of Sheikh…
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The Runaway Princesses of Dubai
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum of Dubai rules one of the world’s richest city-states–and prides himself on being progressive. So why do women from his family keep fleeing? The Royal Courts of Justice, a massive Victorian Gothic structure on the Strand in the heart of London built in the 1870s, is not typically the…
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Israeli spyware tool ‘used to trace fugitive Princess Latifa’
A spyware tool developed by an Israeli security company might have been used to trace an Emirati princess who tried to flee her father’s kingdom. Princess Latifa bint Mohammed al-Maktoum was recaptured by commandos in a yacht off the coast of India. She fled from Dubai with Tiina Jauhiainen, a fitness instructor she had become…
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A princess raced to escape Dubai’s powerful ruler. Then her phone appeared on the list.
In the days before commandos dragged Princess Latifa from her getaway yacht in the Indian Ocean, her number was added to a list that included targets of a powerful spyware, a new investigation shows. The princess had been careful, so she left her phone in the cafe’s bathroom. She’d seen what her father could do…
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Data leak raises new questions over capture of Princess Latifa
Listings of phones belonging to royal and her friends coincide with her dramatic escape from Dubai and eventual recapture. For a few days Princess Latifa had dared to think she could relax. An extraordinary plan to escape from a father she said had once ordered her “constant torture” was looking as if it might work,…
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FBI ‘duped into helping sheikh seize daughter in yacht raid’
The FBI was tricked into helping the ruler of Dubai abduct his daughter from a yacht as she tried to escape his control, it has been claimed. Princess Latifa bint Mohammed al-Maktoum was seized by Indian army commandos off the coast of Goa in March 2018. She claimed to have been held prisoner by her…
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Princess Latifa’s attempt to escape Dubai was thwarted. Here’s what we know about the FBI’s role
Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed al-Maktoum – also known as Princess Latifa – was running away from her father, the authoritarian ruler of Dubai, when her escape was thwarted after a dramatic raid of her yacht in 2018 on the Indian Ocean. How Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum located his daughter was a mystery for three…
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How the FBI played a role in the capture of Princess Latifa of Dubai
On a yacht in the Indian Ocean, heavily armed commandos seized the princess. “Shoot me here! Don’t take me back!” Princess Latifa – whose full name is Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed al-Maktoum – screamed during the raid in March 2018 as the armed men bound her wrists. They had been sent by her father, the billionaire…
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‘Kidnapped’ Dubai princess Latifa pictured ‘on holiday in Spain’
Princess Latifa has appeared in a photo with a British teacher in a Spanish airport, four months after claiming she was imprisoned after being kidnapped by her billionaire father, the ruler of Dubai. The 35-year-old princess wore a mask in the photo posted on Monday by Sioned Taylor, a Royal Navy veteran and Dubai-based teacher,…