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Campaigners voice concerns over Dubai princess
LONDON, Dec 28, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Campaigners have voiced concern after
former UN human rights chief Mary Robinson said a princess who tried to flee
the United Arab Emirates was “clearly troubled”.
Robinson met with Sheikha Latifa, the daughter of Dubai’s ruler Sheikh
Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, for lunch in the UAE earlier this month and
the authorities there released pictures of the meeting this week.
Latifa has not been seen in public since she was allegedly captured at sea
off India in March as she tried to escape after recording a YouTube video in
which she criticised her father and the restrictions she lived under.
Robinson, a former president of Ireland, told BBC Radio 4’s Today
programme on Thursday that Latifa was suffering from “a serious medical
situation” and was receiving psychiatric care without giving further details
about her condition.
“Was she like that before attempting to escape her gilded prison or only
after the UAE forcibly returned her there?” Kenneth Roth, executive director
of Human Rights Watch, asked on Twitter.
“The only certain thing is that a quick lunch won’t provide the answer,”
he wrote.
Radha Stirling, head of the campaign group Detained in Dubai, said
Robinson “appeared to be reciting almost verbatim from Dubai’s script”.
Stirling said that Robinson’s comments “reveal nothing concrete about
Latifa’s condition and serve only to promote Dubai’s attempt to avoid any
serious enquiry”.
“We are very happy that Latifa is alive but are cognizant of the fact that
she herself said that she would rather die than be returned to her father’s
custody and thus continue to have grave concerns about her welfare,” Stirling
said.
Accounts by people involved in Latifa’s escape attempt said that she fled
first to Oman, before boarding a yacht which was surrounded by the Indian
navy and then towed back to the UAE.
A source close to the Dubai government told AFP in April the princess had
been “brought back” to Dubai.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1604 hrs