The Guardian played a prominent role in revealing the abduction of Princess Shamsa of Dubai from the streets of Cambridge.
Under the headline “Police investigate ‘kidnap’ of sheikh’s daughter”, the Guardian was first, back in December 2001, to report that detectives were examining her forced return to the United Arab Emirates.
Members of staff working for her father, Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum, were said to have been involved in the kidnap – a fact later confirmed in the family court’s fact-finding judgment.
One of the Guardian reports detailing the incident was subsequently read by Princess Haya years later, in 2016, the family court judgment reveals. She did not, however, believe the account at first.
“In 2016 the mother had come across an article from the Guardian newspaper written in December 2001 suggesting that Shamsa had been abducted from the UK,” the ruling said. “In so far as it might have implicated the father, the mother did not believe that it was true. When in Dubai she had limited knowledge of Shamsa other than to understand that she lived in a close family unit with her mother and siblings.”
Last summer the Guardian also revealed that a legal battle had been launched in the family courts over the welfare of the two children.
