Friend of Dubai's missing Princess Latifa makes plea to the Queen
The best friend of Dubai's missing Princess Latifa today makes a personal plea to the Queen to intervene.
In an open letter in The Mail on Sunday, Tiina Jauhiainen
pleads with the Monarch to use 'whatever influence' she has with her long-term
horse-racing friend Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum, who is accused of holding his
daughter captive.
Princess Latifa has not been seen in public since 2018 when
she was allegedly drugged and forced back to Dubai following a failed escape
bid with Ms Jauhiainen.
Disturbing footage last week emerged of the 35-year-old
royal in which she said she was being kept in solitary confinement inside a
'villa-jail' and feared for her life.
The videos, released by Ms Jauhiainen and human rights
lawyer David Haigh, are believed to have been made in 2019.
Her friends have had no contact with her since last summer.
The case has echoes of that of her older sister Shamsa, who was abducted from
Cambridge in 2000 when she was 18 and has not been seen since.
In her letter, Ms Jauhiainen writes: 'I am humbly calling
upon you to use whatever influence you have with your friend, Sheikh Mohammed,
to persuade him to grant Latifa and her older sister Shamsa their wish for
freedom or, at least, to supply proof they are still alive.
'Your country has a proud record on human rights and of
holding people, however rich and powerful, to account for their actions.
'Given you so obviously value justice, freedom and family
and that you command universal respect, I truly believe your intervention could
help bring the ordeal of these two women to an end.'
The Dubai ruler has a vast UK asset portfolio, including a
£75million Surrey retreat, a Suffolk mansion and a 63,000-acre Highland estate.
He also founded the Godolphin stables in Newmarket and it is
his passion for racing that connects him to the Queen. The pair have been
pictured together numerous times at the Royal Windsor Horse Show and at Ascot.
It was, however, reported last year that the Queen will now
decline to be photographed with Sheikh Mohammed following a High Court ruling
that found him responsible for the abduction of his two daughters as well as a
campaign of intimidation against his youngest wife Princess Haya.
In a further bid to apply pressure on the Sheikh to release
the princesses, campaigners want Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to apply
financial sanctions on his UK holdings.
Latifa's friends are being advised on financial sanctions by
Bill Browder, a businessman who masterminded the Magnitsky Act to punish human
rights violators by way of asset freezes and visa bans.
'Sheikh Mohammed's financial life would be over if he was
added to the Magnitsky List,' said Mr Browder. 'It would make him an
international financial pariah.'
Mr Raab described the footage of Princess Latifa as 'very
distressing' and has called on Dubai to provide proof she is still alive.
Ms Jauhiainen has been friends with Latifa since 2010, when
she was hired by the family as a martial arts instructor. In 2018, she was
crucial to the royal's bid for freedom and they crossed into Oman and set sail
across the Arabian Sea.
Their boat was stormed by commandos off the coast of India
and the pair returned to Dubai with Ms Jauhiainen eventually released.
After the UN last week demanded proof of Latifa's safety,
the royal ruling family issued a statement claiming she was 'being cared for at
home' although no proof of life was provided.
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