Dubai | Princess Latifa needs proof of life

Agnes Pedro
France Media Agency

In a statement issued a few hours later by the Emirates Embassy in London, the princess was “taken care of at home” and assured that “her condition is improving”: “We hope she will resume public life in a timely manner”.

A spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Liz Throssell, told the media that the UAE had raised the princess’ case on Thursday with a permanent mission in Geneva.

And “we asked for life proof,” she said, emphasizing “serious concerns” about the princess’ fate.

Dominic Robb, head of the British embassy, ​​asked for proof of life on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared that the issue was “of concern to us”, but said that the UN Human Rights Commission was looking into the matter and “it remains to be seen what they will do.”

The 35-year-old princess, the daughter of the ruler of the Emirate of Dubai and the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates Mohammed Ben Rached Al-Maktoum, failed to escape from this Gulf city-state by boat in 2018. Brought back there.

Her relatives aired videos in which she said she was “transformed into a prisoner in a villa” with her windows closed and under police protection. They said they had not heard from her anymore.

The British public broadcaster shot the videos a year after he failed to escape, according to the BBC.

2018 Photos

Several charities, including Amnesty International, have called on the United Nations to take up the case of Princess Latifa.

“We hope the UN will demand the release of his life in a clear and concise way rather than proving it,” Human Rights Watch Gulf researcher Hiba Zaydin told AFP on Wednesday.

UN officials have already sent a letter to the Emirates on December 6, 2018 about the case, including then-enforced or involuntary involvement of the Working Group Chairman-Reporter, and UN Special Rapporteur on illegal, summary Agnes Kallamard. Or arbitrary executions.

They cited information received about the “forced disappearance and death after the princess”, but stressed that the “emergency action sent to the government” on May 2, 2018, had not been answered.

The head of the royal court in Dubai, Mohammed al-Chaibani, replied to them on December 18, noting that no mail had been received on May 2, 2018, assuring the princess that she was “alive, safe and receiving treatment. Dubai residence” and “never arrested or detained”.

Former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson was able to meet the princess on December 15, 2018, a few days ago.

She described her meeting with the BBC, where she described a woman as “distracted, suffering from a serious health problem and following up on psychiatry”, but was well treated by her close family. Photos of the meeting have been published.

Last December, the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances cited the case of the princess in a document reviewing all her activities around the world.

“Based on information provided by various sources, the working group has decided to clarify the case of Sheikh Latifa Mohammed Al Maktoum, who is being held at his family home in Dubai,” he wrote.

NGOs regularly accuse the Emirates, a prosperous Gulf state close to the West, of violating human rights and suppressing critical voices.