In The Dark - The Runaway Princesses, Episode 4: Hostage

Episode Date: February 20, 2024

 Secret recordings reveal what happened to Latifa after armed men stormed the yacht she was hoping would bring her to freedom."The Runaway Princesses" is a four-part narrative series from In the Dark and The New Yorker.  To read Heidi Blake’s reporting on the princesses of Dubai, visit newyorker.com/princesses. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Princess Latifa's friend Tina was desperate for any information about Latifa. She spent her days trying to publicize Latifa's case, talking to reporters, lobbying the UN, appealing for help from human rights groups. But all this time, she had no word from Latifa herself. All she had were these three peculiar photographs, the photos that were taken of Latifa having lunch with the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson. But then one day, Tina got a message from a stranger, a maid who worked where the princess was being held. The maid had taken pity on Latifa.

She took photographs of letters Latifa wrote and passed them on to Tina. So she would obviously destroy the letters. She would flush them from the toilet or I don't know what as soon as she had sent them to me. And she was sometimes like, I'm so nervous that I'm throwing up. I'm so nervous that I'm shaking here in the toilet. If she had gotten caught there, they would have never let her out. Imagine what could have happened to her. Yeah, it doesn't bear thinking about.

My colleague Heidi Blake at The New Yorker got copies of Latifa's letters. They tell the story of where Latifa was in the year that no one heard from her, after her father sent commandos to bring her back to Dubai. Latifa's family was insisting that she was happy at home, receiving loving care. But when Latifa finally made contact with her friends, she sent them detailed accounts of what had really happened to her, secret recordings, to make sure her family couldn't erase her version of the story.

Videos and audio files that she hoped would give her friends the evidence that would win her her freedom. In this episode, we're going to play you some of those recordings. Many of them have never been heard publicly before. It's the final episode of The Runaway Princesses from In the Dark and The New Yorker. Episode 4, Hostage. So Heidi, where was Latifah all this time in this year where her friends, sounds like, have no idea where she was? What happened to her when she was dragged off this yacht?

Well, she writes that she was taken to prison and held in a solitary cell. And at first she said her jailers treated her harshly. But then one day their demeanor seemed to suddenly change. And it turned out that that was when her friends outside had released the video that she'd recorded before she escaped. This is a video where she says her father is evil, that he imprisoned her and her sister Shamsa. Right. And so now her family has a huge public relations problem. She said that her guards suddenly began serving her food on gilded plates and they pleaded with her to recant, to say that she'd been forced to make the video and she'd changed her mind about escaping and that Tina and Hervé wouldn't let her go. But she refused to do that.

So she's in prison, but her guards are bringing her food on gold plates and that's supposed to make her change her story? Right, seriously. She wrote, they are extremely ridiculous. Did Latifah even know what her friends had done, that they'd released this video and they're talking to reporters about her? What could she find out from inside her prison? Did she have access to any information at all? Well, she talks about seeing some things on television. So she writes about how relieved she was when she saw Tina giving an interview to the BBC. And that was the first time she realised that Tina must have been released. She later wrote, it was a huge relief to see the Newsnight doc. I saw it on May 5th. You know, when I watched the

doc or saw my case on the news, it was a surreal feeling. I felt like a ghost watching people discussing me in the past tense and just wanting to scream, I'm here. The media coverage led Latifa's family to step up the pressure on her to try and help quash concerns about her safety. After that interview with Tina, two police women arrived with a fresh outfit for Latifa and they took her to see her father. He told her to wash her face because she'd been crying. Here's her account. I splashed my face with water and walked back to the living room and sat down. because she'd been crying. Here's her account. What I know about you is that you're clever. If you're so clever, why did you escape with people who wanted to exploit you? She said her father ordered a man to take a picture, but she hung her head.

Her father asked her, why aren't you smiling? And when she didn't answer him, he stormed out. She was taken back to prison, but later that month she was suddenly moved to a villa. As soon as she arrived, she noticed the security cameras and the bars on the windows. There were five policemen stationed outside and two policewomen inside with her. And she was there for nearly a year before she managed to smuggle out her first note to Tina. Tina shared the note with David Haig, the human rights lawyer who'd been working with her for a year to try to get Latifa out of Dubai. When the first one came through was a letter to Tina.

And I thought it's too good to be true, it's not real. And then I remember saying it to Tina and then she was like, I know it's real, I know it's real. You know, this sounds like my friend. It was so nice to see joy kind of illuminating in her eyes because this was evidence that Latifa was alive and hadn't given up. And then a few weeks later, Latifa's supporters managed to smuggle a phone into her villa. David told her to use it to make videos documenting what had happened to her and to send them to him and to Tina so that if they ever lost contact,

he could use them to try to press her case. Today is April 18, 2019, and the major news around the world is that the Notre Dame Cathedral caught fire. I need to say it for authentication purposes, so you know that the video that I'm doing is made recently. You can just see her head and shoulders against a white wall. Her dark hair is pulled back in a ponytail and the light is dim. I'm doing this video from a bathroom because it's the only room with a door I can lock. And there's five policemen outside and two policewomen inside the house. And I can't even go outside to get any fresh air.

I'm incommunicado, no release date and I don't know what my conditions will be like after I'm released. So basically I'm a hostage. Today is April 29, 2019. The major international news is a terrorist attack in Sri Lanka. Every day I am worried about my safety and my life. Don't really know if I'm going to survive the situation. The police threatened me that they would take

me outside and shoot me if I didn't cooperate with them. They also threatened me that I'll be imprisoned my whole life and I'll never see the sun again. They want me to break and they want propaganda from me. They wanted me to do a video and say that I'm here happily and voluntarily and I refused, you know. They wanted me to do a video and say that I'm here happily and voluntarily and I refused, you know. They wanted me to say a lot of things and I refused. Because I wouldn't cooperate with them. Because I didn't let them break me. I'm being punished.

David and Tina tried to help Latifa figure out some of the things that had happened to her over the past year. And one day, she told them a strange story about something that had happened months earlier. She recorded it in a whisper so that her guards wouldn't hear her. She said that on the day she was transferred from prison to the locked villa, a reporter had been waiting there for her. She was there in the villa before I arrived. I told her I just came out of prison because I literally just came out of prison and they put me in the villa and then I met her straight away. Latifa didn't actually know who this woman was at first,

but she and David and Tina trawled pictures of local journalists online and they realised that the woman was Caroline Farage, the editor-in-chief of CNN Arabic. Latifa said that she'd tried to tell Caroline Farage where she'd really been while her family had been claiming that she was safe at home. And I said, I just came out of prison, and you were lying and saying I was with my family,

and I saw that while I was in prison on TV. She said, I'm not here for that, you know. They're doing campaigns and they're saying you're dead, and, you know, I'm not here for that, you know. They're doing campaigns and they're saying you're dead and, you know, I'm just here to prove that you're alive. Latifa says Caroline Farage asked her to pose for a photograph and to appear in a video, but Latifa refused. She told Farage she was a hostage and she wouldn't participate in propaganda.

I'm like, I'm a hostage, you know. It's just crazy. Farage went on to publish a story which led with a statement from Latifa's family that she was being cared for at home. The story made no mention of their own encounter. So this is a journalist from CNN who actually saw Latifa locked up in this villa and didn't report that? Yeah, exactly. I tried to ask Caroline Farage about that, but she refused to speak with me. I did speak with a spokesperson for CNN who said that Farage couldn't report any details of the meeting because Latifa had insisted that it was off the record. After that, for six months, Latifa had no visitors. Finally, on December the 6th,

she heard a knock on her bedroom door. It was Princess Haya, laden with gifts. Princess Haya, her father's wife. Right, Latifa's stepmother, Sheikh Mohammed's youngest wife. This was the wife who'd arranged that whole weird lunch between Latifa and Mary Robinson, the former UN Human Rights Commissioner. Right, this is that whole scene where Mary Robinson posed for these photos with Latifa and then told the UN that Latifa was in the loving care of her family. Right. All this time, that's the only version of the story anyone has heard.

But now, months later, Latifa has a phone and she finally has a chance to tell her friends how it came to be that those photos were taken. What happened was in the first week of December, Haya came and visited me, my stepmother Haya, and she said to me, I found you, like she didn't know where I was, and started basically bombarding me with gifts and, you know, like promises that I'll be free in a few days if I cooperate with her, and I had no reason not to believe her, you know. Haya asked her to come to lunch at her palace. And she said to me it would be like a test to see how you will react around people

after being in prison for so long. And if you act well, you react well, you're going to be out in a few days. The news is going to go back to your father. I said, OK. So she picked me up, we went to her house, and then she said, oh, I have invited some of my friends as well. Like, I hope you don't mind.

No, I don't mind. She introduced Mary, never said that she was a former UN head of human rights, never. If I knew that, of course, like, I would have said everything. But Mary Robinson didn't ask Latifa anything about her attempt to escape or what had happened to her since. Later, Latifa learned that Mary Robinson had said publicly that Latifa had psychiatric problems and was in the loving care of her family.

Latifa was flattened by that. She wrote, stayed in bed for a day in tears, felt so used. So, yeah, it was all a complete lie. And then Haya dropped me off here. And I felt so bad, like going out from jail for a few hours and then coming back to this jailhouse. Yeah, it was such a bad feeling. She's been trying so hard not to give her family this kind of photo to show the world.

And then this happens. Yeah, she really felt like Haya had tricked her and she was furious at herself for falling for it. Haya made various gestures of conciliation, like she sent over gift baskets with jewelry and clothes and art supplies and books. And she did visit again. But Latifa was frosty with her and Haya stopped coming. And what does Haya have to say about why she did this? Well, she wouldn't speak with me, but shortly after the pictures with Mary Robinson were released, she told a radio interviewer that Latifa's situation

was just a private family matter. And I don't want to go any more deeply into it because for the protection of Latifa herself and to ensure that she's not used by anyone else. She's a vulnerable young woman. And that's what's important to me. And what's important to us as a family is to ensure that she's all right and that she's receiving the love and protection of all of us.

Haya told the interviewer that Mary Robinson was a dear friend who joined them for a lovely family lunch, and she treasured the memory of it. So at this point, David and Tina have Latifah's side of what happened at this luncheon, but they can't tell anybody because if they do, the family will find out that Latifah actually has a phone now and they'll lose contact with her again. And so at this point, all the world is hearing is this one side of the story, like the Mary Robinson and Princess Haya version of the story. Right. It must have been maddening for them. They can't even tell friends that they're in touch with Latifah. I asked Tina that, and she said that she had a lot of practice

keeping secrets from when she and Latifa had first been planning the escape. You know, same kind of thing. You know, you just don't tell people. You know, when people are saying, oh, do you think she's still alive? I would just say, yes, I strongly believe she is. You know? Instead, like, well, I just chatted to her five minutes ago. You know what I mean?

Right. Right. Wow. Tina says they chatted every day. And a lot of their communication was about the campaign to free Latifa. Latifa was very hands-on about that. She was kind of calling the shots from inside her prison villa. They talked about movies and books and about where Latifah hoped to travel once she was free. We used to have all these funny little chats and she'd tell me about kind of her dreams,

what she wants to do when she gets out and to run a monkey sanctuary, helping animals and things like that. So Tina and I initially kind of took it in turns to be a person that would talk to Latifah. So she always had someone to talk to. She was never alone. Latifah reminisced about asking Tina to sleep out under the stars with her on board Nostromo.

She wrote, we should do that in friendlier waters, in a nice clean boat. And then that summer, Latifa found a new reason to be hopeful. Today is July 17, 2019. And the major international news is that my stepmother is getting a divorce. Her stepmother, Princess Haya. The person who Latifa said had tricked her into posing for photos with Mary Robinson. The person who'd said Latifa was in the loving care of her family. That princess had now fled Dubai.

Another princess running away from Sheikh Mohammed. And now that her stepmother was free, Latifa hoped that Haya would finally tell the world the truth. I'm Nick, and I'm pleased to share the news that I'm Not a Robot, a live-action short film from the New Yorker's Screening Room series, has been shortlisted for the Academy Awards. This thought-provoking film grapples with questions that we can all relate to about identity and technology and what it means to be human in an increasingly digital world. I encourage you to watch I'm Not a Robot, along with our full slate of documentary and narrative films, at newyorker.com slash video. Princess Haya was Sheikh Mohammed's youngest wife. She's stylish and beautiful. When I told you earlier that Sheikh Mohammed and one of his wives had spent $2 million on strawberries, this is the wife.

Haya was a princess even before she married him, the daughter of King Hussein of Jordan. She went to school in England and got a degree from Oxford and she was an accomplished horsewoman. She represented Jordan in show jumping at the Olympics in 2000 and she did lots of charity work too. She was a goodwill ambassador for the UN. Of Sheikh Mohammed's six wives, Haya was the one he chose to appear with him in public. There are lots of pictures of them together at Asghar, dressed up to the nines. But in 2019, when Sheikh Mohammed was photographed at Asghar with the Queen and Prince William, Haya was not on his arm. The Sheikh had discovered that Haya was having an affair with her bodyguard. He divorced her without telling her.

And then he published poems on his website containing thinly veiled references to Haya. One verse ran, Menacing notes were left around her palace. And how do we know all this? From court records. Haya fled to England with her two children, and that July, the month after her absence at Ascot stirred up gossip, she launched a legal campaign against Sheikh Mohammed, seeking court protection for herself and her kids.

So how is Haya able to do this? This seems like exactly what Latifa and her sister Shamza were trying to do. They also wanted to get away to England. They also wanted to get court protection from Sheikh Mohammed. But in their case, the authorities didn't help and kept looking the other way. Why was this different? Well unlike the other princesses, Haya had the protection of another powerful foreign government. She was the daughter of the King of Jordan and Jordan is an important ally to the UAE and it's an ally of the UK. Haya was made an envoy of the Jordanian embassy which gave her diplomatic immunity and the right to live in the UK. And she asked the British courts to issue a non-molestation order, which is a kind of injunction used in domestic

abuse cases. She cited the abuse of Shamsa and Latifa as evidence of the threat the Sheikh posed. So now that she is herself seeking help, she's no longer saying that Latifa is this troubled young woman who's getting loving care from her family. Well, no. So in court, Haya said that she'd initially believed her husband's assurances that Latifa had been rescued from an extortion attempt. But then when she became inquisitive after visiting Latifa, he got angry and told her to stop interfering. Even in London, she remained afraid of him. The Sheikh had published more threatening poems about her, including one titled You Lived and Died, and he told her that she and her children would never Even in London, she remained afraid of him. The Sheikh had published more threatening poems about her,

including one titled You Lived and Died, and he told her that she and her children would never be safe in England. At one point, he tried to buy the property next door to hers. So what does the court in England do? The High Court made Haya's children wards of the court, which barred their removal from the country, and it instigated a fact-finding process to test Haya's claims. And now her lawyers had reason to call Shamza and Latifa to testify. To testify, so they would get a chance to speak publicly in an actual legal proceeding

about what their father had done to them. This seems like it would have been a huge threat to their father. Yeah, well, Sheikh Mohammed apparently thought so. Because soon after that court decision, Latifa sent this voice message to David and Tina. You might not believe me, but right now the police just came and he told me that at six o'clock my father wants to see me. So they're going to take me somewhere else. So I don't know what to do. Shall I just disagree? He said he wants to talk to me and my father wants to let me go. I don't know what to do. The policeman said her father had told them that if she wouldn't come,

they should take her by force. So Latifa went with them to her father's office in the desert. When she got back, she sent her friends a new audio message, stunned at what had just happened. So I go inside this living room area and I'm waiting and then my father comes and he says we'll wait for Shamsa to come. Latifa's father told her that her sister Shamsa was also coming to talk with her. The last time Latifa had seen her Shamsa had been held under guard and heavily medicated. This was the sister who had rescued Latifa from her aunt's palace when she was only 10. The sister who'd fled her father's estate in England and was kidnapped and imprisoned. The sister Latifa had been trying to help both times she escaped.

The sister she'd risked everything for. So then Shamsa comes, and then he goes out, and then Shamsa comes, and then Shamsa comes, and she hugs me. And she kept apologising to me and she it was so weird she's she's now like super friendly with our father she loves him she absolutely loves him and I asked her when did she see our father for the first time she said 11 days ago he came so our father said that Shamsa is allowed to travel now, whenever she wants. She's totally free. She has a phone and she's allowed to travel.

Sheikh Mohammed left the two of them alone to talk. But Shamsa warned Latifa that the room might be bugged. Shamsa was whispering to me, like, be respectful of your father. You know, just be careful, be respectful of him. I said, I am. Like, what did I say? I was speaking to him very nicely. I barely said anything, you know. Latifa was careful about what she said. She didn't want anyone to ask her, how do you know that? And figure out that she had a phone. She said that Shamsa didn't seem

to be drugged. She was energetic, but she was full of praise for their father and for Allah. And she said to me, I'm so sorry because I think I confused you because I wanted to escape, but then I'm happier, but I don't really know what I want, so I think you were just defending me. I said, Shamsa, I went to prison for you. I went to prison for you. I almost died when I was a kid. Latifa said she ran out of patience and she shouted at her sister. I said to Shamsa, I said, Shamsa, like for the next 10 seconds,

I don't care if you're scared. I don't care what's going on in your head. But for the next 10 seconds, be completely honest with me. What do you want in your life? I told her this. I said, what do you want? Tell me what you want so I can help you. And she said, to be honest with you, I'm happy where I am. I just want to be left

alone. You know, the house is beautiful and I just want to be left in peace to worship and to pray. Latifa was nonplussed. Just two years before, Shamsa had got a phone and called England, saying that she was being held against her will. The day after the meeting Latifa was still reeling. And meeting my father yesterday it was like very discouraging for me. He's very arrogant and Shams is completely brainwashed so I don't know. Soon afterward the two sisters were summoned to the desert office again. It was dark outside. Latifa was worried she was going to be executed. She wrote I know it's not difficult for them to put a bullet in my head but when she got there she was allowed to see

Shamsa again. This time Shamsa was weeping. Latifa later wrote that she was sorry she'd got impatient with her sister. She wrote, she was in tears. I felt so bad for her. It broke my heart. They ruined her life. I remember the 18-year-old girl who ran away, full of life and hope and dreams. They destroyed her. And then my father came and he's very friendly and he's very nice and I don't know if he's being genuine or not. Latifa says their father told them that Haya's lawyers were going to ask them to testify. And my father said, just tell them, no, we do not want to be involved. But Latifa refused to cooperate with him as long as she was being held in Cominacado. So she was sent back to the prison villa. Later, she heard that

Shamsa's phone had been taken away. Sheikh Mohammed sent a statement to the court in England, saying that he had offered his daughters a choice about whether to testify. He wrote, both Shamsa and Latifa were adamant that they did not want to do this. He denied abducting either woman. He wrote, To this day, I consider that Latifa's return to Dubai was a rescue mission. Latifa came under renewed pressure to make it appear that she was free. Guards offered to take her out shopping for books so that she could be photographed. It was an agonising offer to refuse. She wrote, I crave fresh air and sunlight, but she knew that if she cooperated, she'd risk scuttling Haya's case.

By February 2020, the story of Haya's allegations of threats from Sheikh Mohammed was well known. So was the story Latifa had recorded in her escape video of how he had abused her and kidnapped her and her sister. Still, people poured into Dubai that month for the Global Women's Forum. 3,000 people from more than 80 countries, full of praise for Sheikh Mohammed. Thank you. Please welcome our final keynote speaker, Ivanka Trump, a keynote speaker. She beamed at Sheikh Mohammed and his son, who sat in the front row. We are incredibly grateful to be joined by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed.

Your presence here means so much. And His Highness the Crown Prince as well. Thank you both. Thank you both for your strong and steadfast commitment to advancing women's economic participation across Dubai and the broader United Arab Emirates. Britain's former Prime Minister, Theresa May, was there too. She accepted a fee of £115,000 to speak about gender equality. The Emirati government rolled out a new law enabling women to obtain restraining orders against domestic abusers. But men in Dubai still have the legal right

to physically discipline their wives and daughters. And women in Dubai still can't work or marry without the consent of their male guardians. So all these powerful people are praising Sheikh Mohammed for being progressive on women's issues at the same time as Princess Haya's case against him is going on in England. Right, where way less powerful people are testifying about what he does to women. Tina testified. So did David Beck, the police inspector who'd investigated Shamsa's kidnapping.

In the absence of direct testimony from Latifa, the judge accepted her escape video as witness evidence, saying that her account had a strong ring of truth about it. In March of 2020, the court that was considering Princess Haya's case published a detailed finding of fact. It noted that Sheikh Mohammed had used the very substantial powers at his disposal to achieve his particular aims. The court found that Sheikh Mohammed had kidnapped his daughters and subjected Haya to a campaign of fear and intimidation. So the judge had basically found that the story Latifa had been telling all this time was true.

Right. David Haig was delighted. So I always thought that that would give her such an infusion of power and energy to think, right, the world believes me. My freedom is coming. People believe me now. Up until that point, people had called her a liar. People had literally called her crazy to Mary Robinson. This was someone in authority, a proper English senior judge saying, I believe you, Latifa. And, you know, I said to her something along the lines of, you know, this is massively good for you. And then the response was not what I was expecting. David told me that Latifa seemed strangely underwhelmed.

It was just like, it was just like I told her, oh, rainy day. Oh, okay. He was noticing a change in her messages. Yeah, I'm really reaching a point now where I'm just getting so tired of everything. I don't understand what will it take for him to release me. I don't know what they're planning to do with me. I don't know what his plans are for me. I don't know if he will let me walk out of here alive. I really don't know. So the situation is getting more desperate every day. And I'm just really, really tired of this now. It was like something had broken. Pieces of her were not there anymore.

And then I knew that they were winning, the bow guys were winning the fight in times of breaking her. Latifa told David the guards wouldn't even let her open the window. She said she felt she was dying a very slow death by suffocation. Then she reported that she was being visited by a psychiatrist who appeared alongside her father's security officials to pressure her to comply with his wishes. One of her guards gave her a stopwatch to measure the time ebbing away.

Sheikh Mohammed had also been trying a gentler appeal. One day a package had arrived at the villa. It was a copy of his memoir, inscribed, Your Father Who Always Loves You. And Latifa wept. She wrote, maybe the war is finally over. Then she started to talk about her father like he was an angel. I feel sorry for my father. You know, he's an elderly man and I should be a loving, willing daughter. And I'm like, hang on a minute. Where did that come from? No, he's not a nice person.

He did these terrible things to you and he did these terrible things to other people. And if you want to give him a Father's Day card, do that. But when you're out, you're free and you're safe. But stay strong. I'll do that, but when you're out, you're free and you're safe. But stay strong. In mid-July, she texted David something that she'd always refused to contemplate. She said that she wanted to move on,

even if that meant she had to spend the rest of her life in Dubai. But then a few days later, she sent a more resolute message. She wrote, I won't believe I'm free until I'm on UK soil. That was July 21st, 2020. She wrote, And that was the last time David ever heard from Latifa. Thank you. I encourage you to watch them along with our full slate of documentary and narrative films at newyorker.com slash video. Latifah had told her friends that if she ever went silent, they should assume she was being held against her will. She wrote,

The plan had always been that if they lost contact, her friends should release the videos she'd secretly recorded as evidence that she was being held prisoner. But now she'd vanished so suddenly, they went back and forth over whether disclosing them would help Latifa, or just put her in even greater danger. My view at the time was, we had these videos that she'd... The evidence videos of what they'd done to her, that exposed Dubai and its lies, I was like, let's use them.

Let's use them now, because she's not in a better situation. She's in a worse one or she's dead. They waited months to see if Latifa might find a way to get word to them, but they heard nothing. So they sent transcripts of a selection of Latifa's secret videos to the UN and they released clips to the media. The videos made news around the world. After years locked away in silence,

Princess Latifa has exposed her father's cruelty by secretly recording and smuggling out video diaries of her wretched existence. My name is Latifa Al-Maktoum. I'm a hostage and this villa has been... The UN called on the UAE to prove that Latifa was alive and the British government finally broke its silence. Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, expressed concern about Latifa's safety and so did the Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab.

The Queen cancelled Sheikh Mohammed's invitation to join her in the Royal Box at Ascot and Mary Robinson told the media she regretted saying that Latifa was with her loving family. She said that she'd been horribly tricked. Then, shortly after the videos were released, a British teacher in Dubai named Seanad Taylor posted a picture on Instagram with the caption lovely evening. Seanad Taylor was one of the few people Latifa had been allowed to spend time with after the first time she was released from prison, a companion handpicked by the royal family. The picture she posted showed

three women at a table in a deserted mall. Next to Seanan Taylor, hunched forward, blank-faced, and dressed in black, was Latifa. The day after the picture appeared, David and Tina got the first of a series of letters from a global law firm called Taylor Wessing. They claimed to represent Latifa, and they ordered David and Tina to stop advocating for her. A lawyer for the firm wrote,

she now wants to live a normal, private life to the fullest extent possible. The letter about Latifa and to delete all the evidence that she'd shared. They refused. They wanted evidence that Latifa wasn't under duress. OK, well, prove that she's fine. You know, prove that it's her and it's her not under duress. And then provided that happens, and of course, well, if that's her general wishes, of course we'll do anything that she asks.

The next day, Seanan Taylor posted another photograph of Latifa sitting at a waterfront restaurant in Dubai, smiling tightly at the camera. Lovely food at Beach Amare with Latifa sitting at a waterfront restaurant in Dubai, smiling tightly at the camera. Lovely food at Beach Amare with Latifa earlier, she wrote. The following month came another picture of the two of them. This one was apparently taken at the Madrid airport. Latifa was dressed in baggy sweatpants and a crumpled tie-dyed t-shirt. Shortly after, the law firm Taylor Wessing issued a statement in Latifa's name. It said, I didn't know what to do, and even now I still don't.

Because, you know, the person that I last spoke to when she wasn't under duress told me what she wanted to happen. And, you know, I remember, I think it was one of the last things she said to me and said to other people as well was, you know, I'll never be truly free until I'm in England. And so I had this massive battle in my conscience of what do I do?

But David and Tina figured that Latifa must have made some kind of deal with her father. Maybe, you know, her decision is what was the best option for her. You know, she just took what, you know, what she could, right? So, I don't know. It's very difficult to speculate. So we stepped back a bit and thought, well, we'll step back,

but make it clear we are always here and we're watching, and we're not going to stop watching. They decided to stand down. After all those years, they announced that their campaign to free her was over. All this time, Latifa had never spoken for herself. But at the end of 2021, a meeting was arranged in Paris between Latifa and the former Chilean president, Michelle Bachelet. Michelle Bachelet was High Commissioner for Human Rights at the United Nations.

She was Mary Robinson's successor in that position. After Latifa and Michelle Bachelet met, the UN Human Rights account posted on Twitter, Latifa conveyed to the High Commissioner that she was well and expressed her wish for respect for her privacy. A picture was released of Latifa standing beside Michelle Bachelet outside a Paris metro station. So what did her supporters make of this? Well, they told me they were somewhat relieved. Like David said, at least now someone in the international stage is taking responsibility for all of this.

And Bachelet's intervention went a long way to quell international concerns about Latifa. The meeting was presented as evidence that Latifa really was well and was living in Dubai of her own free will. But last year, I spoke to Michelle Bachelet about the meeting, and she cast it in a starkly different light. The UN had said at the time that it was Latifa who'd requested the meeting, but Michelle Bachelet told me the meeting was the product of long negotiations between her and officials in Sheikh Mohammed's government. Well, look, I'm so grateful to have this chance. I recorded that interview, but at the time, I didn't know I'd be making a podcast,

so the tape quality is poor, and you can hear me thumping away, taking shorthand notes on a stylus. Michelle Bachelet told me that she met privately with Latifa at a Paris hotel. And Latifa told her that she's been able to travel and that she lives alone. She showed Bachelet pictures of her pets. But Bachelet told me if she's happy or not, I could not tell you. Did you come away from that meeting feeling absolutely convinced that she's definitely doing this freely

and there's no way that her father has said to her if you don't go and tell Michelle Bachelet that you're safe and well, I'm going to put you back in prison. Did you feel totally convinced, or was there a corner of doubt in your mind that how can you know if she's really OK? I mean, the first thing is that... Michelle Bachelet told me that her first priority

was just to make sure that Latifa was alive, that the photos of her weren't faked. And Latifa told her that she's fine, she's happy with her life. She said, of course, you ask yourself, okay, is this totally true? Or has Latifa made an arrangement with her father because she decided that was her only option? That's something I can't tell you. She said it could be that she realises that what she wants will never happen. Because she will always be under certain control. So she decided for less,

for a scenario that is not what she wants, but is not as bad as what she's been going through. It is a possibility that she has lost hope. It is a possibility that she has lost hope. Michelle Bachelet told me that she asked Latifa about Shamsa, and Latifa's demeanour changed markedly. Latifa refused firmly to talk about her sister. And where is her sister Shamsa now?

I don't know. No one has seen her. None of the palace insiders I talked to had any idea where she was. So the Emirati government apparently arranged this meeting between Latifa and Michelle Bachelet. I wonder, did they get what they wanted out of it? Did it repair the damage that was done to Sheikh Mohammed's reputation?

Yeah, it's interesting. Even now, surely no one can believe Sheikh Mohammed's version of the story, that Latifa was just mentally ill and got manipulated by criminals and he rescued her. Videos she made are still available online. A British court found that Sheikh Mohammed kidnapped his daughters and menaced his wife. And it also found that he was using a software program called Pegasus to hack into Haya's phone and the phones of her lawyers and security guards, which is a violation of British law. The Tifa's supporter, David Haig, also found that his phone had been hacked.

And the Tifa's number appeared on a also found that his phone had been hacked, and Latifa's number appeared on a leaked list of apparent Pegasus targets. Sheikh Mohammed has denied any mistreatment of his wives or daughters, including hacking their phones, and the makers of the software Pegasus dispute that list. But it's as if none of that matters. These pictures of Latifa apparently travelling and Bachelet's intervention seem to have eased any reputational troubles that Sheikh Mohammed faced. The Biden administration approved a multi-billion dollar arms deal and pushed ahead with a $100 billion clean energy collaboration, declaring the UAE an essential partner of the United States. Last spring, world leaders poured into the Dubai Expo, and then the Emirate was selected as the host for the COP28 climate change summit. And Dubai itself, it still has this reputation as this amazing aspirational vacation spot.

Right, with the water slides and the beaches and the indoor ski slopes and the luxury shops. And one of her letters, Latifa wrote about that. She said, And in one of her letters, Latifa wrote about that. She said, I really want people to know that not all is as it appears, that the glittery facade hides a horrible truth of extreme brutality, oppression and corruption. Last April, I wrote to Latifa, urging her to speak with me.

I received a letter from a law firm in London refusing that request. And that same day, a new account appeared on Instagram in the name Latifa Al Maktoum. There was a picture of Latifa in Austria, posing outside the Swarovski Crystal Worlds Park in a puffer coat and snow boots. All alone. It said, I was recently made aware of media inquiries for a piece which casts doubt on my freedom. I can understand it from the outside perspective of seeing someone so outspoken fall off the grid and have others speak on her behalf, especially after everything that has happened, which appears to make me look like I'm being

controlled. I am totally free and living an independent life. And do you think she is? It's so hard to believe that she would not send a single message to her friends if she could. You know, she told them again and again that unless they heard directly from her, she was not free. It would be so easy for her to put their minds at rest. Right, just send one text message. Exactly. And if she really wanted to make all of this hoo-ha go away, she could do it. She could just tell them, stop it, I'm fine, but she's chosen not to do that? Or does she even have a choice? Latifa once wrote to David and Tina, there will never be a conclusion where Latifa is happily with her UAE family. And then she wrote in all caps, never.

But maybe it just got too hard to keep fighting. She kept it up for so long. Years and years of resistance. She's 38 years old now. She was just 16 the first time she escaped. She was 32 when her father's security forces dragged her from the yacht Nostromo. The escape video she left with friends then tells such a plaintive story of her suffocating life and all the abuse she'd faced.

But when she recorded it, she was so hopeful. I don't know how I'll feel just waking up in the morning and thinking, I can do whatever I want today. I can go wherever I want. I have all the choices in the world like anyone does. That day that she taped the video in Tina's apartment, Latifa was so sure that she'd thought of everything, that she might make it out of Dubai,

that she might finally, after of Dubai that she might finally after all these years be free that would be such a new different feeling that would be amazing I'm really looking forward to that අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි අපි The Runaway Princesses was written and produced by Catherine Winter and Heidi Blake. It was edited by Samara Fremark, Willing Davidson, and me, Madeline Barron. Sound design by Chris Julin and Samara Freemark, with original music by Chris

Julin. Our art is by Malika Favre. Additional editing and production by Natalie Jablonski. Fact-checking by Elen Warner and Teresa Matthew. Art direction by Aviva Mikhailov. Legal review by Fabio Bertoni and Kamisha Laurie. Our managing editor is Julia Rothschild. The editor of newyorker.com is Michael Luo. The digital director is Monica Rasek. Thanks also to Katie Cleveland, Lindsay Ederheimer, Sarah Robstenick, Ben Richardson, Nick Troutwine, Stephen Valentino, and Aaron Weaver. The Runaway Princesses is a production of The New Yorker and Condé Nast. The head of global audio for Condé Nast is Chris Bannon. The editor of The New Yorker is David Remnick. From PRX.