A prominent human rights charity has warned Brits living or visiting Dubai that they may face “targeted harassment by police and immigration authorities” in retaliation for an explosive court ruling in the UK that found Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum arranged the abduction of two of his daughters.
Radha Stirling, chief executive of Detained in Dubai, an NGO that supports foreign nationals who have been arbitrarily detained in Dubai and across the UAE, said there was “every reason” to believe British people were at “heightened risk” from police, security services and the Emirati general public following the ruling.
On Thursday, the Family Division of the High Court in London published a Fact Finding Judgement (FFJ) in favour of Princess Haya Bint Al-Hussain, the Sheikh’s former wife who fled Dubai for London last year claiming she was in fear for her life.
The judgement found:
- Sheikh Mohammed arranged for his daughter Sheikha Shamsa, who fled to the UK in 2000 to be abducted and forcibly returned to Dubai where she remains in captivity.
- He also arranged for his daughter Sheikha Latifa to be renditioned back to Dubai after she tried to flee the UAE on a boat captained by a former French spy and accompanied by her Finnish friend.
- Sheikha Latifa remains held in captivity. Judge Sir Andrew McFarlane found allegations of serious physical abuse that amounted to torture to be credible.
- Sir Andrew also found that the Sheikh “continues to maintain a regime whereby both these two young women are deprived of their liberty”.
- Sheikh Mohammed was said to have “not been open and honest with the court”.
Sheikh Mohammed tried to keep the judgement secret but his appeal that the judgment should not be published was rejected by the court who concluded it was in the public interest. The 70-year ruler said the the judgment only presented one side of the story.
“There is every reason to believe that British citizens living in or visiting Dubai are at heightened risk after the publication of Sir Andrew McFarlane’s ruling,” Stirling warned on Saturday.
“… both the cases of Princesses Shamsa and Latifa demonstrated that the state apparatus of Dubai, specifically the security services, military and law enforcement, operate according to the personal wishes of Sheikh Mohammed, and he does not hesitate to mobilise them for vindictive and egoistic purposes,” she continued.
“Furthermore, the police, prosecutors and judges in Dubai surely know without being told that any case filed against a British national at this time will proceed rapidly to conviction without the slightest scrutiny; if only to send a message to the UK government.”
Tensions between the UAE and the United Kingdom heightened on Saturday after sources claimed the Queen would “shun” the Sheikh and refuse to be photographed with him. The two Royal Family’s have had a close relationship with both the Sheikh and the Queen sharing a love of horse racing.
The British government is said to be distancing itself from the ruling, wary of the important trade links between the two countries, but Cambridgeshire police department is believed to be reopening its investigation into the abduction of Sheikha Shamsa.
Stirling now believes Sheikh Mohammed will pile pressure on the British government by “targeting” British citizens in Dubai.
“Dubai was already a very risky place for British tourists and ex-pats, and it just became considerably more dangerous.”
