Dubai princess, who tried to flee UAE, believed to be dead // Indian Action Under the Scanner as UN Rapporteur Probes Fate of Dubai Princess (Beti Bachao government in action)

By Dilip -
NB: Another case of murderous misogyny and organised crime by the rulers of the Arabian peninsula. And the Indian government shamefully assisted the bloodstained ruler of Dubai. 'Atithi Devo Bhava' applies only to robber barons with lots of cash, apparently. DS

Watch Latifa's video of her doomed attempt to escape:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN7OEFyNUkQ

The ruler of Dubai and Prime Minister of United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum is under global scrutiny for alleged forceful confinement and perhaps even murder of his daughter Latifa. Reports said the princess was captured in a highly secretive operation last March, some 50 km away from the coast of Goa from a US flag carrier and forcibly taken back to the UAE.  She was said to be running away from oppressive confinement with her friend, an alleged French-born US spy.

Since then, there has been no news of the princess, and many fear that she may have been murdered. Before her escape attempt, she recorded a video in which she said that she was fleeing the Emirates due to restrictions imposed by her family.  Latifa, in her video, said she previously tried to flee UAE in 2002 when she was 16 but was captured at the border. She spent over three years in jail where she said she was beaten and tortured. "If you are watching this video then either I am dead or in a very very bad situation," she declared in the video. "I need to make this video in case I don't make it."

After plotting her escape for over seven years, she again fled the country in February 2018 with the help of Finnish national Tiina Jauhiainen and French-born US spy Herve Jaubert.  The UAE government's stand is that Herve Jaubert, the US spy, had conspired against the royal family using the Princess as leverage. Haigh said a similar rumour had been floated about him, accusing him of being a Qatari spy. He fears this episode will end up like the Khashoggi tragedy.
In February 2018, she escaped Dubai to Oman in a car then boarded a dinghy to international waters. She boarded the US flag carrier yacht anchored 30 miles off the coast of Oman. "The plan was to sail to India and fly from there to the USA, where she was planning to claim political asylum," Jauhiainen said. However, she was intercepted by the Indian coast guard off the Goa coast and Jauhiainen has not heard from her since March 4.  The UN, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other groups have been demanding information from the UAE about her whereabouts for over nine months. Two UN bodies have written to India about the secret operation conducted in international waters. 
https://www.dnaindia.com/world/photo-gallery-dubai-princess-who-tried-to-flee-uae-believed-to-be-dead-what-we-know-so-far-2696699

Indian Action Under the Scanner as UN Rapporteur Probes Fate of Dubai Princess
The enforced disappearance and possible execution of Dubai princess Sheikha Latifa after the boat she was travelling in near Goa was allegedly boarded by the Indian coast guard earlier this year has been referred to the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, a lawyer representing the missing princess said.

Latifa, daughter of Dubai ruler and UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, went missing on March 5, 2018, some 50 km off the coast of Goa, along with French-US national Hervé Jean Pierre Jaubert, and a third person, Tiina Jauhiainen, a long-time friend of Latifa. The three  were on a US-flagged yacht, Nostromo, which had set sail from Oman and was headed to Goa. Latifa was fleeing her father and trying to migrate to the United States via India. But the plan was reportedly put to an end by Indian forces acting upon a request from the UAE. The operation is said to have been cleared at the highest level of the Indian government.

UN special rapporteur: According to Toby Cadman from Guernica 37, the London-based law firm representing the princess and her two friends, the UAE and India have not responded so far to initial queries put to them by the UN. “The matter has now been referred to the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions as we have received reports that she may not be alive,” Cadman wrote in an email to The Wire. “This is because, court of the ruler of Dubai issued a statement a few days ago claiming Latifa was well and with her family. This is despite no one having seen her for nine months,” Cadman added.


Arab women before and after Islam

It was Guernica 37 International Justice Chambers that invoked the special procedures of the OHCHR, specifically the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the UN special rapporteur on torture, inhumane and degrading treatment requesting their urgent and immediate intervention in Latifa’s disappearance.

Jauhiainen, a Finnish national, had accompanied Latifa aboard Jaubert’s yacht. In a statement to Detained in Dubai, an international NGO, she recounted her role in Latifa’s escape and the terrifying events that followed... read more:
https://thewire.in/diplomacy/indian-action-under-the-scanner-as-un-special-rapporteur-probes-fate-of-dubai-princess

see also
The religious persecution of Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd
Arab women before and after Islam
More posts on Khashoggi's murder
More posts on Saudi Arabia


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