It sounds like James Bond series. After two years of total silence, Sheikha Latifa binte Maktoum, who also is known as Princess Latifa reportedly has sent a hand-written letter to Cambridgeshire police. BBC has confirmed to have seen the letter, where Latifa tells Cambridgeshire police this could help free Princess Shamsa, who was captured on the orders of their father.
Shamsa, who was just 18 then and is now 39, has not been seen in public since.
A High Court judge ruled in 2019, that Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum had abducted both daughters and held them against their will.
Last week BBC Panorama broadcast shocking videos Latifa had secretly recorded on a phone she had been given, in which she described how she was being held “hostage” by her father following a failed escape attempt in 2018. The UN has since asked the United Arab Emirates for proof that Latifa is alive.
Accordingly, Dubai has provided protos of Princess Latifa, proving she is alive and happily living with her family members.
The case of Princess Shamsa
According to BBC report, in August 2000, around two months after escaping from her father’s Longcross Estate in Surrey, Shamsa was forcibly taken from Cambridge, flown by helicopter to France and then by private jet back to Dubai.
BBC said, Latifa’s handwritten letter, which was passed to the Cambridgeshire force by her friends on Wednesday, urges action for her sister by British authorities. It was written in 2019 while she was being held in solitary confinement in a “jail villa”.
“All I ask of you”, writes Latifa, “is to please give attention on her case because it could get her her freedom… your help and attention on her case could free her.”
She adds: “She has strong links to England… she really loves England, all of her fondest memories are of her time there.”
The mysterious letter from Princess Latifa
Princess Latifa’s letter is an old one which, which has been submitted now with a false story of being written by her recently. About the letter being back-dated, BBC said: Latifa dated the letter February 2018, before her escape attempt, to avoid revealing that she had a way of communicating with the outside world from captivity. It paints a chilling picture of her sister’s fate after she was returned to Dubai.
“She was kept incommunicado with no release date, trial or charge. She was tortured by getting her feet caned…”
Cambridgeshire police first launched a kidnap investigation in 2001 after Shamsa made contact via an immigration lawyer. But the investigation eventually hit a dead end when officers were blocked from going to Dubai.
It later emerged that aides acting for the sheikh had made representations to the Foreign Office around the time of the investigation.
Police reviewed the investigation in 2018, and BBC News can now reveal that one investigator acknowledged there were “significant sensitivities” with the case.
A further review was launched after the High Court judgment was published in 2020.
In a statement to BBC News, Cambridgeshire Police said it had received Latifa’s letter, which “will be looked at as part of the ongoing review”.
The statement added: “This is a very complex and serious matter and as such there are details of the case that it would be inappropriate to discuss publicly.”
Princess Latifa’s letter and recently released videos are old ones
After submission of the letter from Princess Latifa to the Cambridgeshire Police, one mystery has already been revealed about the recently published video of the Dubai princess.
According to the investigative team of Blitz, someone might be trying to take advantage by releasing all of these old videos and letter of Princess Latifa.
