INDIA/UAE: Earlier this month, India’s military was mentioned in a complaint filed with the International Criminal Court regarding the purported abduction of Princess Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum of Dubai in 2018.
This adds to persistent rumours and a British court’s 2020 fact-finding decision that India may have been involved in Latifa’s forced capture while she was fleeing the United Arab Emirates in international waters, allegedly at the request of her father and Dubai’s ruler Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
While Delhi has never responded to this alleged breach of international human rights standards, press reports have long stated that by aiding in Latifa’s capture, the UAE was granted permission to extradite arms dealer Christian Michel. He was sought after in a fraud investigation.
Late in February 2018, Latifa and her friend Tiina Jauhiainen reportedly sailed into international waters off the coast of Oman in a jet ski and an inflatable boat, where they found Hervé Jaubert, a former French intelligence officer, waiting in the Nostromo, a yacht flying the American flag. Latifa was trying to escape the United Arab Emirates and travel to India in order to seek refuge in the United States.
The yacht allegedly came under attack by Indian coast guard commandos in international waters a little more than a week later, as it was off the coast of Goa. Latifa, who was 32 at the time, was purportedly taken prisoner by Indian commandos and given to UAE forces, who returned her to Dubai. Her father, Sheikh Mohammed, allegedly asked for this action to be taken.
Indian personnel repeatedly yelled, “Who is Latifa”, Jauhiainen stated while later defining the purported armed raid to a British court in regard to a separate case. “After some time, an Arabic man was brought onboard who identified Latifa. Latifa was shouting that she claimed asylum and that the Indian forces were breaking international law. She was simply ignored,” the UK court quoted Jauhiainen as alleging.
Jauhiaien and Jaubert were also returned to Dubai before being freed many weeks later due to diplomatic pressure from the West.
Following Latifa’s capture, British human rights attorney David Haigh posted a pre-recorded video online in which she is allegedly seen describing her escape. Latifa blamed her father, saying that she and her older sister, Shamsa, had spent years being imprisoned, tortured, and drugged forcibly because of their pursuit of individual liberties. Latifa also made an unsuccessful attempt to leave the UAE in 2002.
The video sparked global worry and prompted appeals for the release of Latifa. Despite the UAE government’s insistence that Latifa was secure within her family’s custody, a separate video emerged in February 2021, appearing to have been recorded covertly. In that video, Latifa claimed to be confined against her will in a Dubai villa, with no ability to seek medical or legal assistance.
In a surprising twist in June 2021, Instagram posts allegedly depicted Latifa at shopping malls in Dubai, the Madrid airport in Spain, and even in Iceland. Then, in February 2022, Latifa declared in a statement that she is now “living as she wishes” and was photographed in Paris alongside the former United Nations human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet.
UK court
These details about Latifa’s capture gained attention during a child custody dispute in a British court involving Sheikh Mohammed and his second wife, Haya Bint al-Hussein. In 2019, Haya, who is not Latifa’s mother, left for the United Kingdom with her children. She cited Latifa’s situation as evidence to support her claim that Dubai’s ruler also posed a danger to her.
In March 2020, British judge Andrew McFarlane, presiding over the case, determined the allegations of a coast guard raid to be credible. McFarlane’s fact-finding judgement stated, “The account of… a seaborne assault by Indian military forces who, in turn, handed those on board, save for Latifa, over to the UAE military, is not challenged. Indeed, [Sheikh Mohammed’s] short account would seem to confirm that he authorised action to be taken, on his terms, to rescue Latifa.”
“The description of the way in which Latifa was treated by the Indian security services and also, once the Arabic man had identified her, does not give any indication that this was a ‘rescue’ rather than a ‘capture’,” McFarlane further added.
Sheikh Mohammed, who holds the roles of UAE’s prime minister and ruler, refuted the claims of Latifa being forcibly taken and held captive. He asserted that Jauber had gradually manipulated her with the intention of extorting money. “To this day, I consider that Latifa’s return to Dubai was a rescue mission,” the UK court cited him as saying.
The most recent complaint
The detention of Latifa had caused a global outcry regarding Delhi’s purported involvement, as reports suggest that the UN human rights commissioner’s office has asked India to address the accusation of complicity.
According to a Wednesday report by sources, the attached crime report in the complaint submitted to the International Criminal Court in The Hague mentioned the Indian “armed forces.”
The report claimed that the Indian forces were accused of various actions, including boarding a US-flagged yacht forcefully in international waters, carrying out armed assault and causing serious injuries, conspiring to commit murder, endangering lives, kidnapping, unlawful detention, trespassing, theft, damaging property, and violating human rights through torture.
The Court has received a complaint, which supposedly includes Sheikh Mohammed and the UAE’s former interior minister Ahmed Naser Al-Raisi as well, and it was filed on behalf of Jaubert.
According to a report by the Business Standard in April 2018, undisclosed government sources indicated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had sanctioned a raid based on recommendations from essential national security personnel, deeming it crucial for India’s counter-terrorism efforts and strategic concerns. The alliance between India and the UAE has notably intensified in recent years.
In December 2018, it was widely reported that Christian Michel, the alleged intermediary in the VVIP chopper scam case, had been extradited to India that month in return for assistance Delhi had given in capturing Latifa.
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