Princess Latifa, the 35-year-old daughter of the ruler of Dubai, says in a secret video recording that she is being held hostage in a “villa converted into a jail.” The video clip and others were screened on Tuesday night by BBC Panorama in its documentary “The Missing Princess.”
Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum, the daughter of UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, was last seen publicly in March 2018 before trying to flee the country.
Princess Latifa secretly recorded the videos herself using a mobile phone while in a locked bathroom, according to the BBC.
The BBC said that it has independently verified the details of where the princess is being held. It said that she is guarded by a rotation of some 30 police officers both inside and outside of the compound. The villa’s windows are barred and she has not been outside in over a year, according to the report.
It is the second time that Latifa has attempted to escape from her family in the United Arab Emirates; her last attempt was in 2002. One of the sheikh’s wives, Princess Haya, who is not Latifa’s mother, fled to the UK in 2019 with two of her children and applied for a protection order.