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Tories accused of ‘turning a blind eye’ to plight of Dubai’s captured Princess Latifa
The Tories have been accused of “turning a blind eye” to the fate of Dubai’s Princess Latifa because her father is an ally of the UK. When Latifa released secretly recorded video messages last month claiming she was being held against her will after her abduction in 2018, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab described the footage…
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Abducted, kidnapped, escaped: the ugly tale of Dubai’s princesses
It’s the stuff of a dark fairy story: imprisoned daughters, a runaway bride and an overbearing father. Recent headlines about the family of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum have sent shockwaves around the world – and there’s no happy ending in sight. Martin Fletcher investigates. As a child Marcus Essabri used to play with his…
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Government ‘turned blind eye’ to Dubai leader for failing to prosecute him over daughter’s kidnap in Cambridge
Ministers have questioned why the Government failed to prosecute the ruler of Dubai over the kidnap of his daughter in Cambridge and for continuing to hold her sister hostage. Former Labour Cabinet Minister Lord Hain questioned whether the Government was “turning a blind eye” to abuses under Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum because he…
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Robinson’s evidence ‘critical in the fight to free Latifa’
A lawyer and friend of missing Princess Latifa of Dubai says former president Mary Robinson has vowed to “help in the campaign to free her” and has a “critical and key” role to play. The captive daughter of Dubai’s ruler, who is reportedly being held hostage by her father, was previously described by Mrs Robinson…
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Brenda Power: Let’s not horse around — racing is just business
What would the bloodstock magnate Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum have to do to provoke the same horror and indignation in the racing world as that picture of trainer Gordon Elliott sitting on a dead horse? Abduct two of his own daughters at gunpoint and keep them as prisoners for years? Get agents to terrorise…
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The tourists who flock to Dubai seem happy to overlook a few missing princesses
How many abducted and imprisoned princesses would it take for British tourists to turn their backs on Dubai? Three? Four? Ten? Because two “disappeared” princesses doesn’t look like being enough, even now that a secretly filmed account by one of them, saying she had been captured, assaulted, drugged and repatriated, has appeared on the BBC…
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Mary Robinson says she made her biggest mistake in role over Princess Latifa
Former president now says she believes UAE princess is being detained against her will
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The Middle East’s Progressive Darling Abuses Its Women
In a series of recently released videos, Latifa Al Maktoum, a Dubai princess who was missing for more than a year, recounted her harrowing capture by around a dozen commandos who raided a boat she was sailing 30 miles off the coast of India. After a struggle, one tranquilized her, and she fell unconscious. The…
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Godolphin stables Sheik ‘should be banned from Melbourne Cup and Everests’, activists demand
The ruler of Dubai should not be allowed to race in the Melbourne Cup or Sydney’s Everest after his daughter claimed she was being kept hostage, human rights activists say. Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, Dubai’s Prime Minister and owner of Godolphin stables, has been under pressure since his daughter Princess Latifa smuggled out a…
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Elaine Byrne: Robinson should have known better on the plight of Princess Latifa
“As a woman, I want women who have felt themselves outside history to be written back into history.” So said Mary Robinson in her famous “Mná na hÉireann” speech in 1990, when she became Ireland’s first female president. That historic speech is very much at odds with Robinson’s extraordinary lack of curiosity around the wellbeing…