"I just want to be free," Princess Latifa, daughter of Dubai's ruler, says in video messages secretly recorded from a villa where she was being held following her failed escape in 2018.
BBC News
Published
image captionDubai s Princess Latifa before her escape attempt in 2018
Videos secretly recorded by Princess Latifa, a daughter of Dubai s ruler, have been obtained by the BBC s Panorama programme. She sent them to friends after her failed escape attempt from the Middle East emirate in 2018.
Twenty years ago, her sister Princess Shamsa, also tried to escape the ruling family, while staying in the UK. The governments of Dubai and the UAE have failed to respond to requests for comment from the BBC about Latifa s current condition.
The story so far
July 2000
Princess Latifa’s older sister Shamsa escapes while on holiday with other members of the Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s family at their Surrey estate. The sheikh launches a search for her, but doesn’t inform the police – his men track her down in Cambridge over a month later.