The Spy, The King, & The Missing Princess

Last year, Dubai’s Princess Latifa made a bid for freedom. She was returned to the palace by force and hasn’t been heard from since. William Langley investigates.

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Shielded from the swirl and dazzle of Dubai, the Zabeel Palace, home of the citystate’s billionaire ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, presents a reassuring image of serenity. Peacocks wander over velvety lawns, tethered lions snooze beside reflecting pools, and the gilded domes and arches evoke the Tales of the Arabian Nights. Yet from behind the palace walls comes a real-life story of a more disturbing kind.

The sheikh’s 33-year-old daughter, Princess Latifa, has not been seen in public since last March when she was seized aboard a yacht in the Indian Ocean while attempting to “escape” from Dubai. Before fleeing, Latifa wrote to a friend: “All my life I have been mistreated and oppressed. Women are treated as sub-humans here. My father can’t continue to do what he has been doing to us all.”

From the first sketchy details of her disappearance has emerged an astonishing saga of subterfuge, intrigue and high-seas daring, featuring a Mission: Impossibleworthy cast of characters including a former French spy and a sky-diving martial-arts instructor. In the months since she was returned to Dubai, the dark-haired princess has become a global cause célèbre, pitting highprofile campaigners for her freedom against the powerful Maktoum dynasty’s determination to protect its interests.

No one outside the royal household can say exactly where Latifa is, or what conditions she is living under. In late December, the palace released a set of photographs of her meeting Mary Robinson, the former President of Ireland, who is an old friend of the sheikh and his wife, Princess Haya.