UN Says UAE Has Failed To Provide Proof That Princess Latifa Is Alive

The United Arab Emirates has failed to produce proof to confirm that Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed al-Maktoum is still alive. Princess Latifa is the missing daughter of Dubai’s ruler last spotted in 2018.

Earlier, The UN’s human rights office asked Dubai to provide “proof of life” for Latifa. Responding to the demand echoed by the UK foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, and other western governments, the UAE declared in a statement that “her Highness is being cared for at home”.

On April 9, the UN spokesperson Marta Hurtado, in Geneva, stated in a briefing that the UAE hasn’t responded to its request. Also, there have been no clarifications from their end about the conditions in which Latifa was apparently being held.

“We haven’t got any proof of life, and we would like one, one that is clear compelling evidence that she is alive. Our first concern of course is to be sure of that, that she is still alive,” Hurtado said.

According to The Guardian, Senior UN officials had sought a meeting with the United Arab Emirates ambassador regarding Princess Latifa. Hurtado further confirmed that the UN also planned to raise the case of Shamsa, Latifa’s older sister, who was allegedly kidnapped from the streets of Cambridge in the year 2000.

Princess Latifa missing case

The 35-year-old Emirati princess, who went missing off the Goa coast, claimed in a video message that she has been held hostage in a villa and doesn’t know if she’s “going to survive this situation”.

“I’m a hostage,” Latifa says in one new video broadcast by BBC.

“This villa has been converted into jail. I can’t even go outside to get any fresh air,” she said in the video.

The videos of the missing princess were released by BBC as a part of an episode of “Panorama” investigative series.

According to Latifa, she tried to escape and crossed into neighbouring Oman and took a jetski to a yacht in international waters. Along with two of her friends, she managed to reach the west coast of India and had been spotted by the Indian coast guard after being tracked.

A UK High Court  judge ruled last year that “The ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum ‘ordered and orchestrated’ the kidnapping of his daughter, Sheikha Latifa two years back after she tried escaping Dubai.”

The Emirati princess Sheikha Latifa Bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum is a member of the Dubai Royal Family. She is the daughter of Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum the Vice-President of UAE.