A Dubai princess who has been the subject of concern from a United Nations panel after being seized trying to flee the sheikhdom in 2018 appeared in a social media post early Monday that described her as being in Spain on a “European holiday.” An Instagram image published by a woman identified in British media as former Royal Navy member Sioned Taylor shows Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum at Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport.
Princess Latifa bint Mohammed al-Maktoum, the daughter of Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, tried to flee Dubai by boat in February 2018 but was intercepted off the coast of India. Nothing was heard from Latifa until February this year, when the BBC published a video of her in which she said was being held “hostage” by her family in Dubai in a villa that “has been converted into a jail.” The United Nations has called for her release, with spokesperson Marta Hurtado saying in April that the United Arab Emirates had failed to provide proof that she was still alive. However, a photo posted to Instagram Monday by a person identified by the Associated Press as former Royal Navy member Sioned Taylor shows Latifa at Madrid’s Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport.
