The daughter of the Emir of Dubai, Latifa al-Maktoum, is living a nightmare. For years, she has tried to flee the Gulf city-state … to no avail: in 2018, the princess failed to get very far, and now claims to be held captive in a villa in his country, watched by police officers. She gave a chilling testimony in a video filmed by cell phone, from the toilet, because "this is the only room with a door where (she) can lock ". Thus, the 35-year-old princess claims to be held in this villa"turned into a prison ", and details: "All the windows have been blocked off (…), there are five police officers outside and two policewomen inside ", adds the daughter of Mohammed Ben Rachid al-Maktoum, who sent his videos to his close friends, who then forwarded them to the BBC. "I worries me every day for my safety and my life (…). The police told me that I will be in prison all my life and that I will never see the sun again ", she continues. "The situation becomes more desperate every day (…) I don't know what they are planning to do with me. "
Several desperate attempts to escape
This is not the first video as scary as the princess posts. Already in 2018, after trying to escape aboard a sailboat who had been overtaken by the Indian Navy, she feared for her life and had sent a desperate appeal: she said to have been "tortured " and "imprisoned for three years " By his father, the Emir of Dubai. In this latest video, the young woman says she was drugged on the sailboat and could not wake up until she arrived in Dubai, where she's been from "held hostage ". Latifa had made her first escape attempt in 2002, and her sister, Shamsa, had attempted to flee to London in 2000. But the emir then ordered the abduction of two of her daughters. Contacted by the channel, the Dubai authorities have still not reacted.
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