Dubai’s ruler ordered abduction of daughters
Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum ordered the abduction of two of his daughters and subjected his former wife to a "campaign of fear and intimidation", forcing her to flee to London with their two children, according to a British court ruling made public on Thursday.
Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, 45, fled the United Arab Emirates last April having become "terrified" of her husband, who is also the vice-president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates.
Soon afterwards, the 70-year-old sheikh applied for their two children -- a son aged eight and a 12-year-old daughter -- to be returned to the Gulf kingdom.
But Princess Haya, a half-sister of Jordan's King Abdullah II, applied for the children to be made wards of court and filed a non-molestation order for herself.
She asked during a London hearing for a judge to make findings of fact about the kidnapping and forced detention of two of the sheikh's adult daughters from a previous marriage.
She also alleged she had faced a "campaign of fear and intimidation" since she left last year.
Sheikh Mohammed, who owns the Godolphin horse racing stable, tried to prevent two of the court rulings being made public.
But the Supreme Court rejected his application on Thursday morning, allowing them to be published.
Judge Andrew McFarlane, found Mohammed "ordered and orchestrated" the abduction of Sheikha Shamsa from the UK city of Cambridge when she was 19 in August 2000.
She was forcibly returned to Dubai and "has been deprived of her liberty for much, if not all, of the past two decades", he said.
He also found Shamsa's sister, Latifa, 35, was seized and returned to Dubai twice, in 2002 and again in 2018.
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