Britain said on Wednesday it wants to see proof that Sheikha Latifa, one of the ruler of Dubaiโs daughters, is still alive after the BBC published a โdeeply troublingโ video in which she said she was being held against her will in a barricaded villa.
โGiven what weโve just seen, I think people would just at a human level want to see that sheโs alive and well,โ British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told Sky News television when asked whether he would support seeing some kind of proof from the United Arab Emirates that Sheikha Latifa was alive.
Britain is concerned about the footage and the United Nations will be following up on the video, Raab told the BBC.
The Dubai governmentโs media office referred questions about the video to Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoumโs law firm, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the video, published by the BBC as part of the Panorama current affairs programme, Latifa, 35, said: โI am a hostage and this villa has been converted into a jail.โ
She said she was making the video in the bathroom of the villa, the only room she could lock herself into, adding: โAll the windows are barred shut, I canโt open any window.โ
Reuters could not independently verify when or where the video was recorded.
โItโs deeply troubling and you can see a young woman under deep distress,โ Raab said.
Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed al-Maktoum drew international attention in 2018 when a human rights group released a video made by her in which she described an attempt to escape Dubai.
Last March, a London High Court judge said he accepted as proved a series of allegations made by Sheikh Mohammedโs former wife, Princess Haya, in a legal battle, including that the sheikh ordered the abduction of Latifa. The sheikhโs lawyers rejected the allegations.
Asked if Britain would impose sanctions on the UAE after the video, Raab said: โItโs not clear to me that there would be the evidence to support that.โ
By Hussein Jama
February 17, 2021
