Speaking publicly for the first time in three years, the 34-year-old royal prisoner describes in vivid detail how her dramatic 2018 escape attempt involving jet skis and a yacht ended in her brutal recapture and forcible repatriation.
The Indian authorities handed her straight back to her billionaire father who has held her against her will ever since, with his henchmen promising her she would 'never see the sun again'.
In the most damming video filmed after her failed escape, the Princess says: 'I'm a hostage. And this villa has been converted into a jail. All the windows are barred shut.
'There's five policemen outside and two policewomen inside. I can't even go out to get fresh air. So basically, I'm a hostage.'
Last year the High Court in London found Latifa's father, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, 'ordered and orchestrated' her abduction and forced return to Dubai on two occasions, in 2002 and again in 2018.
The Queen with Sheikh Mohammed on Derby day in 2011
Latifa escaped Dubai in February 2018 after recording a disturbing video in which she revealed her troubled relationship with her father.
In the video, Latifa accused him of jailing her for three years in 2002 when she tried to escape what she called his 'repressive control'.
The princess said she was drugged and tortured on the orders of her father.
She said was not allowed to drive, had no passport and was followed by a team of guards.
Latifa also claimed her older sister Shamsa is being kept against her will in Dubai after she tried to escape the kingdom and was abducted from the UK in 2000.
Latifa, who is one of the Sheikh’s 30 children by his six wives, fled Dubai by jet ski to rendezvous with a yacht waiting to sail to India.
After eight days at sea, the yacht she was travelling on was boarded by Indian commandos off the coast of Goa and she was returned to the custody of her father in Dubai.
The sheikh says Latifa was tricked into escaping by criminals who wanted money and that returning her to Dubai was a rescue mission.
He has been the subject of allegations that have come from a number of members of his family. As well as Latifa and one of her sisters, two former wives claim he abused them. The sheikh denies the claims.
Three years on from that episode, Latifa has released another series of videos, this time secretly recorded by in 2019.
Looking pale and frightened, she described the moment when the yacht on which she made her failed escape attempt, skippered by a hired former French spy she had hired, was stormed by Indian troops at sea.
Eight days into the voyage the Sheikh's military forces tracked her down 30 miles off Goa when the boat, Nostromo, was boarded by Indian special forces firing off stun grenades and tear gas.
'I kept saying you can't take me back,' she recalled. 'I want asylum and we're in international waters. You can't kidnap me. They were just on a mission and they were given orders.'
Latifa describes how she fought with two Emirati officers and bit one of them on the arm before her hands were zip tied and she was later tranquilised to keep her quiet.
She says: 'The same guy who tranquilised me came and then he tranquilised me again on my left arm. They put me on a stretcher, and as they were carrying me up steps of a private jet is when I passed out.
'When I woke up the jet had already landed in Dubai and I just felt really sad at this point. Everything I was working on for so many years to get my freedom was gone.'
The recordings were made at great risk to her personal safety and smuggled out of Dubai to her supporters in the UK who have her permission to release them in the hope it will secure her release.
The Princess – one of the Sheikh's 30 children by six different wives - tells how she has been imprisoned and threatened with being shot unless she cooperates with the official statements issued by her father.
Sheikh Mohammed and the Dubai Royal Court have claimed she is safe in the loving care of her family.
'They want me to break and they want propaganda from me,' she said. 'They also threatened me that I'll be in prison my whole life and I'll never see the sun again.'
The new footage, which will also be broadcast by BBC Panorama on Tuesday evening, fully supports a High Court judge's ruling last year that the Sheikh had ordered Latifa's kidnap and imprisonment, first in Dubai's grim Al Awir jail, then in the sealed villa.
India has never commented on its alleged role in the operation.
The ruler had previously been pictured alongside the Queen at horse racing events due to their shared passion for the sport, although the Queen was said to 'distance herself' from him following the High Court ruling.
Post time 17-2-2021 01:23 PM
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