Dubai’s billionaire ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, has opened a legal case against one of his wives, Princess Haya bint al-Hussein, CNN has learned.
British media reports claim Princess Haya, who is the daughter of the late King Hussein of Jordan, has left her husband and traveled from Dubai to London. But at the moment, CNN is unable to verify either her whereabouts or those reports.
The princess is a well-known international figure, being close friends with the heir to the British throne, Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall.
The case is being heard in London, at the Family Division of the High Court, and the next hearings will be on July 30 and July 31.
When contacted by CNN, the Royal Courts of Justice confirmed the court dates, but not the identity of the two parties.
“The case was last heard on the 22 May 2019 before Mr Justice Moor and the case is next listed before the President on the 30th July 2019,” reads the statement from the court.
CNN has separately confirmed both the dates and the parties involved in the legal case.
Sheikh Al Maktoum will be represented by Lady Helen Ward of Stewarts, a high-profile law firm in London, CNN has also learned.
Princess Haya is the half-sister of the King of Jordan and received a British education, completing a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford. She is a keen equestrian, representing Jordan at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
According to her website, she has two children with Sheikh Al Maktoum, “one daughter, HH Sheikha Al Jalila, who was born on December 2, 2007, and one son, HH Sheikh Zayed, who was born on January 7, 2012.”
Last year, another daughter of Sheikh Al Maktoum, Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum, attempted to escape Dubai, claiming she had been tortured and detained for three years — sometimes in solitary confinement — following her failed attempt to leave the UAE in 2002 as a teenager.
She was last photographed with UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson. Three low-resolution photos, which were released by the UAE foreign ministry last December, showed Sheikha Latifa dressed in a dark hooded sweatshirt and gray jeans while she either looked away from the camera or towards Robinson, who is also the former president of Ireland.
Robinson made the visit at the request of the ruling family, according to a communique the UAE mission in Geneva sent to the Office of Special Procedures at the High Commissioner for Human Rights for the United Nations.
“The documents respond to and rebut false allegations that have been made about Her Highness, providing evidence that she is alive and living with her family in Dubai,” the statement said.
Source: CNN
