Sheikah Latifa Mohammed Al Maktoum, who claims to be the daughter of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Prime Minister and the ruler of the Emirate of Dubai Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, was taken back to the UAE earlier this month with the help of India, French-American national Herve Jaubert who was with her said in a YouTube statement released by the group Escape from Dubai on March 29. Latifa’s friend, 41-year-old Finnish skydiver Tiina Johanna Jauhiainen, was also on the vessel that was captured off the coast of Goa, it added.
Jaubert, 62, said he was also taken to the UAE and detained for days before being released. Jauhiainen was later released too. In a statement released by Detained In Dubai, a legal organization that was helping the two women, Jauhiainen said, “Sheikh Mohammed is one of the most powerful people in the world and he can get you anywhere in the world and bring you back.” She said she was beaten, tortured and forced to sign a “false” confession and was released after being warned that she would not be safe “even in Finland” if she dared to speak out.
Latifa and Jaubert had gone missing off the coast of Goa on March 4, following which a video was posted online on March 11, which she said was her last message. Their journey began on Feb. 24, 2018.
“As Latifa’s closest friend I know the horrors of what she has suffered in the UAE at the hands of the ruling family and in particular her father,” she said.
Jaubert said that the Indian Coast Guard took over his yacht Nostromo on March 4, when he was helping the 33-year-old Latifa to escape since she was tortured by her father. He said that 12 armed men of the Indian Coast Guard beat them and took them by force. He added that five “warships,” two planes and a helicopter attacked them, and that India used warships with cannons and missiles on them and “hunted them.” He called India’s involvement “shocking.”
Coast Guard’s deputy commandant Avinandan Mitra told NDTV earlier this month that they did not have any information about the operation. Other Coast Guard officers and the public relations officer, RK Singh, did not comment on the matter either, the Indiana television channel reported.
Jaubert said the three were planning to fly to the United States for asylum.
He said they were taken to the UAE, where they were blindfolded and cuffed. He did not find out where they were kept.
Latifa had allegedly opened up to Jauhiainen about the abuse and prison time she suffered for a previous attempt to escape. The two women contacted French ex-secret service agent Jaubert, who is famous for his book, Escape from Dubai, to help them flee the country.
In the recent video posted on March 29, Jaubert said he was traveling to Sri Lanka on his yacht after being released and fears for his life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSD6K_ZkrQE&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxGDwoqWOYY
In the video that brought attention to the matter, Latifa told Radha Stirling of the Detained in Dubai group that she was hiding with the Finnish woman, that her yacht was attacked and she heard gunshots. After this, all communication with the group ended until Jaubert’s recent video was posted online.
Stirling told the Helsinki Times on March 19: “We have a U.S. flagged yacht that has disappeared, a US/French national, a Finnish national and the daughter of the ruler of Dubai missing after reporting gunfire. We now have the daughter of the ruler of a country making serious allegations of criminal actions against her father. The UAE has such strong commercial, trade, media and diplomatic ties, that this incident is likely to have a snowballing effect on the political and economic stability.
Authorities have remained silent, including the UAE, and it is clear that these people need as much outside help as they can get. There has been overwhelming worldwide support from the public, and the incident has even been raised in Denmark’s Parliament via Søren Søndergaard and this attention needs to continue. Latifa, Hervé, and Tiina deserve their disappearance to be properly and thoroughly investigated, irrespective of the economic and political importance of the UAE. I have spoken with Hervé’s family, who only discovered he was missing when the news was published; I have now spoken with Tiina’s family who is equally as distressed. Tiina’s family have issued a statement and are appealing to the public for any information that could lead to finding their beloved daughter and sister.”
The whereabouts of Latifa are not known. The matter has been raised with the United Nations by London-based Barrister Toby Cadman of Guernica International Justice Chambers.