The billionaire ruler of Dubai, who was yesterday found by a High Court judge to have kidnapped his daughter from the streets of Britain, is one of the world’s richest men and boasts a multi-million pound property portfolio.
Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum’s lavish collection of homes include a £75m Surrey estate, a historic mansion and stud farm near Newmarket and a sprawling Highland retreat with 63,000-acres of land.
Princess Shamsa was abducted from Cambridge 2000, with the teenager saying armed bodyguards grabbed her, injected her with sedatives and rendered her to Dubai, where she was tortured.
Sheikh Mohammed, 70, was also exposed as having waged a campaign of ‘fear and intimidation’ against his youngest wife, Princess Haya, who fled to Britain last year fearing that he would kill her.
The billionaire racecourse owner is a friend of the Queen and a close UK ally, whose collection of lavish British country houses stands testament to his deep ties with the country.
£75m Surrey estate… complete with ‘portable cabins to house the servants’
The historic Longcross estate, near Chobham in Surrey, was purchased by Sheikh Mohammed in the 1990s as a place to escape the stifling summer heat in the Gulf.
It was at the centre of a planning row in 2019 over claims the billionaire had, without planning permission, installed portable cabins on its grounds to house his servants.
A letter to planning officials at Runnymede Borough Council claimed ‘considerable development’ had taken place at the estate, which is estimated to be worth £75m.
The historic Longcross estate, near Chobham in Surrey, was purchased by Sheikh Mohammed in the 1990s as a place to escape the stifling summer heat in the Gulf
An aerial view of the site, where neighbours have repeatedly complained of excessive development amid a series of planning rows
It contained photographs of at least eight portable buildings which were said to have been erected more than a year ago, as well as four pagoda-style marquees set up ‘very recently’.
Retrospective planning applications were submitted to Runnymede Borough Council, but neighbours accused the Sheikh of showing ‘cynical disregard’ for planning laws, damaging the environment and putting wildlife at risk.
The ruler of Dubai’s land is covered by an Article 4 Declaration, meaning even minor changes must receive permission from the council.
As with all of Sheikh Mohammed’s properties, security at the estate is very tight, with perimeter guards, CCTV and an inner security fence.
It was at the centre of a planning row in 2019 over claims the billionaire had, without planning permission, installed portable cabins (pictured) on its grounds to house his servants
Former Suffolk home of diamond magnate Cecil Rhodes that now produce’s the Sheikh’s thoroughbred horses
Sheikh Mohammed snapped up the historic Dalham Hall in 2009 for £45m, to serve as a stud farm near to Newmarket race course.
It was previously owned by diamond magnate and colonial adventurer Cecil Rhodes, who bought it after reading in the game book that 1,700 partridges had been shot there during the first four days of the 1901 season – but he died before he could move in.
The grade II-listed house is eight miles west of Bury St Edmunds and comes complete with 3,300-acres of land.
Construction of the house was started in the early 18-century by Bishop of Ely Simon Patrick, before it was converted into a stud farm in 1928.
Horse-racing Sheikh Mohammed’s greatest passion and he is the owner of the Godolphin stables, which has produced some of the leading thoroughbreds in the sport.
Sheikh Mohammed snapped up the historic Dalham Hall in 2009 for £45m, to serve as a stud farm near to Newmarket race course
Sprawling 63,000-acre Highland estate with three helipads at the centre of ANOTHER planning row over a new laundry
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum’s 63,000-acre estate in the Scottish Highlands boasts a 14-bedroom holiday mansion and a triple helipad.
But that wasn’t enough for the Dubai ruler, who has been at the centre of yet another planning row over his desire to build a hunting lodge and a laundry to clean his guests’ clothes after they’ve been on shoots.
A source said of the laundry application: ‘It’s important to have a laundry here to ensure that garments are pressed and prepared clothes to the highest standard.
‘The Sheikh is extremely proud of the estate and this is an essential part of the ongoing expansion and ensure that the Sheikh and family ensure their high presentation standards. The family certainly don’t want to have dirty garments.’
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum’s 63,000-acre estate in the Scottish Highlands boasts a 14-bedroom holiday mansion and a triple helipad
His estate, which is the size of 31,500 football pitches, has a 16-bedroom luxury hunting lodge complete with a swimming pool and gym. The Sheikh purchased the site roughly 20 years ago for £2million.
He also recently won planning permission for 28 more bedrooms at the Inverinate retreat – bringing the total to 58.
In October, neighbours accused the billionaire of using his royal status to push through the controversial plans for a second hunting lodge on the estate.
Thirty residents claimed it would destroy their local community and the beauty of the area.
He was then force to downsize his plans for the fourth time, with planners yet to make a final decision.
Calls for billionaire Dubai ruler to face UK justice over kidnap of his daughter from UK streets amid claims Labour’s Robin Cook shut down police probe against him as a ‘diplomatic favour’
By Sam Greenhill, Chief Reporter for the Daily Mail and Henry Martin for MailOnline
Ministers helped a billionaire sheikh get away with the kidnap of his daughter from the streets of Britain, the High Court has heard, and now British authorities are facing pressure to bring the Gulf state monarch to justice.
The ruler of Dubai, a friend of the Queen and close UK ally, ordered henchmen to abduct Princess Shamsa from Cambridge in 2000, a judge found.
The teenager said armed bodyguards grabbed her, injected her with sedatives and rendered her to Dubai, where she was tortured.
Yet when Cambridgeshire police launched a criminal probe, it was allegedly shut down amid ‘interference’ by the Foreign Office – as a diplomatic favour.
In an astonishing ruling, Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum, one of the world’s richest men, is today also exposed as having waged a campaign of ‘fear and intimidation’ against his youngest wife, Princess Haya, who fled to Britain last year fearing that he would kill her.
Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein and Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum attend Derby day at Epsom Derby festival at Epsom Downs on June 3, 2017 in Epsom
The High Court said billionaire Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum – a friend of the Queen – had Princess Shamsa (pictured) abducted from Cambridge after she went on the run in 2000
The court found he masterminded behaviour which, on the balance of probabilities, potentially runs ‘contrary to the criminal law of England and Wales, international law and internationally accepted human rights norms’.
Now for the first time, the alleged kidnap cover-up under Tony Blair’s government of 2000 can be reported.
At the time, Labour was supposedly pursuing an ‘ethical foreign policy’. But now it is alleged the then foreign secretary Robin Cook, who died in 2005, effectively shut down a serious criminal inquiry into a helpless girl’s kidnapping.
Shamsa had begged British detectives to save her, but they were forced to drop the case.
In an explosive ruling following a 10-month High Court child custody battle between the sheikh and Princess Haya, it can be revealed:
- The court found the sheikh responsible for kidnapping Shamsa from Cambridge in 2000.
- He also sent commandos to abduct another runaway daughter, Princess Latifa, during her escape bid in 2018, the court found.
- Both princesses were locked in a Dubai palace and remain imprisoned to this day.
- Oxford-educated Princess Haya fled with their two young children to London after discovering the truth about Shamsa and Latifa.
- She feared her daughter Princess Jalila was being lined up for a forced marriage aged 11 to the notorious Saudi crown prince accused of killing journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
- Sheikh Maktoum also discovered his wife was having an affair with her British bodyguard.
Public officials are now facing pressure to bring the sheikh to justice, after a judge found that he orchestrated the abduction.
Now it is alleged the then foreign secretary Robin Cook, who died in 2005, effectively shut down a serious criminal inquiry into a helpless girl’s kidnapping
Following the judge’s ruling, Shami Chakrabarti, Labour shadow attorney general, said: ‘This is clearly a shocking judgment. Both Priti Patel and Dominic Raab must urgently investigate why a criminal inquiry into a kidnap in Cambridge appears to have been impeded.’
The British lawyer for Princess Latifa, David Haigh told the Guardian he would be submitting the judgment to the United Nations’ working group on enforced or involuntary disappearances.
‘We are delighted with the judgment,’ he said. ‘It’s vindication for everything we have been saying, vindication for Shamsa, Latifa and Haya.’
Haigh added that he and Latifa’s close friend Tiina Jauhiainen were interviewed by Cambridge police in late 2019.
He said: ‘It is now clear to see why Sheikh Mohammed did not want these judgments to be made available to the world. They show him as someone unfit to be in charge of children, let alone a state that is an ally of the UK.’
Princess Haya is pictured at the Court of Appeal with Baroness Fiona Shackleton, February 28
First the High Court, then the Appeal Court and then the Supreme Court all threw out his bid for secrecy, ruling the world should know what Sir Andrew McFarlane, the president of the family division of the High Court, had concluded about his ‘criminal’ behaviour
Today’s bombshell revelations come after Sheikh Maktoum lost a desperate bid to keep the case secret. He hired eight top British QCs at enormous cost but they have not been able to stop his humiliation.
First the High Court, then the Appeal Court and then the Supreme Court all threw out his bid for secrecy, ruling the world should know what Sir Andrew McFarlane, the president of the family division of the High Court, had concluded about his ‘criminal’ behaviour.
In a victory for open justice, it can be revealed that the Gulf ruler’s own ex-wife fought against him for the public’s right to know the ‘evil’ secrets of the Dubai royal family.
A million Britons visit the United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is part, each year. The 70-year-old sheikh owns Godolphin stables, a favourite of the Queen, in Newmarket, Suffolk. He and Princess Haya, 45, his sixth and youngest wife, are regulars at Royal Ascot.
Last April, Princess Haya fled in their private Boeing 737 to Britain with their children, Princess Jalila, 12, and Prince Zayed, eight. They are now holed up in an £85million mansion in central London.
The sheikh – who is worth £14billion – launched a High Court case to demand the ‘summary return’ of his son and daughter, but it has backfired spectacularly, with him losing his children and his wife, and his standing as an international statesman.
Now for the first time, the alleged kidnap cover-up under Tony Blair’s government of 2000 can be reported
Oxford-educated Princess Haya mounted her own escape from Dubai after discovering the truth about Shamsa and Latifa.
Sir Andrew heard evidence from former Cambridgeshire Detective Chief Inspector David Beck who investigated Shamsa’s abduction and had requested official permission to visit Dubai to interview her.
Charles Geekie, a QC for Princess Haya, told the High Court there was ‘interference’ in the police inquiry and ‘a direct interest being expressed by the foreign secretary’.
The Foreign Office has since admitted it ‘does hold relevant information’ on the case, but claimed it ‘would be likely to prejudice relations between the UK and other states if it was disclosed’.
In his ruling, Sir Andrew said: ‘The allegations that the father ordered and orchestrated the kidnap and rendition to Dubai of his daughters Shamsa and Latifa are of a very high order of seriousness. I have found he continues to maintain a regime whereby both of these young women are deprived of their liberty.’
Sir Andrew said Haya wanted him to conclude Dubai had ‘made representations’ to the Foreign Office ‘to bring an end to the investigation’ but it was not possible to prove this.
The sheikh did not appear or call any witnesses during the court case, and has not appealed against the findings.
Last night he said: ‘This case concerns highly personal and private matters relating to our children. The appeal was made to protect the best interests and welfare of the children. The outcome does not protect my children from media attention in the way that other children in family proceedings in the UK are protected. As a head of government, I was not able to participate in the court’s fact-finding process. This has resulted in the release of a ”fact-finding” judgment which inevitably only tells one side.’
A dramatic escape, an affair with a bodyguard and a £5.2m battle royal: How British-schooled Olympic horsewoman Haya bint al-Hussein took on her potentate husband Sheikh al-Maktoum after fleeing to the UK
It was a cloudless evening in April last year when a luxury private jet glided in to land at Farnborough airport near London.
Her Royal Highness Haya bint al-Hussein stepped off the opulently-appointed Boeing 737 – and became the third princess to flee one of the world’s richest and most powerful families.
And so far Princess Haya, the glamorous 45-year-old Oxford-educated youngest wife of the ruler of Dubai, is the only one to have successfully escaped.
Disembarking into the crisp British air after the seven-hour flight from Dubai, she kept her two young children close.
Princess Haya of Jordan. The sheikh and Haya had long been a fixture in British high society and are independently both friends of the Queen
By car, they were whisked into central London where, shortly before midnight, they swept through the black iron gates of an £85million mansion in central London which she had bought in February 2018 without her husband.
The daughter of Jordan’s late King Hussein, Princess Haya was quite unlike any of Sheikh al-Maktoum’s five other wives.
Her mother, Queen Alia of Jordan, died in a helicopter crash when she was two, and she was sent to England to board at £30,000-a-year Badminton.
She went up to Oxford to study philosophy, politics and economics at St Hilda’s College, where she met ‘open-minded people who were prepared to debate anything’.
The princess competed in showjumping at the 2000 Olympics for her country and has been a goodwill ambassador for the UN world food programme.
The sheikh now has to suffer details being made public of his young wife’s extramarital affair with her British bodyguard, former infantry soldier Russell Flowers (circled)
She also had a fun side, confessing to a penchant for ‘raunchy’ Jilly Cooper novels and mixing a love of Chanel with high street clothes.
Last year the sheikh – unaware his wife was fleeing him in fear of her life – had been waiting for her and their children at his sprawling estate in Newmarket, Suffolk, one of several enormous homes the 70-year-old monarch owns in the UK. They never turned up.
The sheikh and Haya had long been a fixture in British high society and are independently both friends of the Queen.
His Godolphin stables at Newmarket are one of the world’s most successful racing organisations, and she is a racehorse owner in her own right.
It was only hours before the sheikh twigged that his young wife – once the ‘liberal face of the monarchy’ in Dubai but who had drifted into an affair with her British bodyguard – had left him.
Worse, from his perspective, she had taken their daughter Princess Jalila, then 11, and son Prince Zayed, then seven.
Ensconced behind the walls of their bullet-proof London mansion, Princess Haya received a cryptic message from one of her husband’s associates about a wife being ‘slaughtered in anger’.
Russell Flowers at Royal Ascot in June 2018
It was part of a sinister ‘campaign of fear and intimidation’ the sheikh had been waging against his young wife. The couple had ‘not enjoyed an intimate relationship with each other for a significant period of time’, according to yesterday’s judgment, but it was Haya’s discovering the truth about her husband’s ‘torture’ of his two older daughters, Shamsa and Latifa, that split them apart.
Her husband – who once told her ‘nothing happens here if I don’t know or command it’ – did not welcome her interest in the princesses, she said. Twice she found a gun on her bed which she took as a death threat.
In early February last year, there was a chilling telephone conversation with the sheikh in which he cruelly suggested Zayed was ‘a desert boy – in a few months we will take him from you, you will see’.
Then in March, he told his youngest children: ‘We don’t need your mum any more, do we?’ The children replied: ‘Yes we do’, the court ruling revealed. Sheikh Maktoum responded: ‘No, we don’t need her’.
On March 11, a helicopter landed on Haya’s lawn, and one of the security guards told Zayed: ‘Bubba is angry with Momma. He is going to send her to the jail’. The princess said her young son clung to her leg with terror. It was a ‘warning’, the court heard.
On April 15, in ‘utter terror’, Haya took her children and fled to the UK in fear of her life.
Today a team of smartly-dressed bodyguards wearing earpieces accompany her and the children everywhere, on the infrequent occasions they dare leave the safety of their mansion.
One of the former British police chiefs responsible for her protection was himself threatened by a representative of the ruler of Dubai in London.
The High Court ruling says that, despite his significant experience, the officer was ‘seriously troubled and concerned about the threats’. In public, nothing was said about the seismic rupture between two of the most powerful ruling dynasties in the Middle East and the ramifications for diplomatic relations within the region and between Britain and the United Arab Emirates.
Less than a month after her midnight flit, the fugitive princess was meeting the Queen at Windsor Castle. A month after that, in June, it was the sheikh’s turn to join Her Majesty, at Royal Ascot.
But behind the scenes, a menacing domestic drama was unfolding as the sheikh – trained at Sandhurst-precursor Mons Officer Cadet School – sent an army of top-flight British lawyers to the Royal Courts of Justice in London to demand the ‘summary return’ of his children. The millionaire princess recruited her own fearsome legal squad.
The lifting of the veil of secrecy shrouding the case means the details of the extraordinary marital feud have burst into the open.
Just as humiliatingly for the sheikh, he also now has to suffer details being made public of his young wife’s extramarital affair with her British bodyguard, former infantry soldier Russell Flowers.
The relationship began at some stage in 2017/18. Matters did not come to a head until early 2019 when Haya claims her husband phoned her and said: ‘I have received bad news about you. I have heard that you are sitting in the palace with the British security (a reference to the bodyguard). I am starting to doubt you.’
Sir Andrew said in his ruling: ‘The effect of this call on the mother (Haya) was chilling. She says, “I was terrified”.’
After she fled to Britain in May that year she claimed her husband sent her a message saying: ‘You and the children will never be safe in England.’
Haya asked the High Court for, and was granted, a ‘non-molestation order’ – a law designed to help victims of domestic violence.
The couple’s unprecedented London court clash cost £5.2million, it is estimated.
The sheikh hired Lady Helen Ward, who handled Guy Ritchie’s split from Madonna. On Princess Haya’s side was Baroness Shackleton of Belgravia, known as the ‘Steel Magnolia’, who represented the Prince of Wales in his divorce from Diana, Princess of Wales.
As the case unfolded, Haya attended every hearing, flanked by flamboyantly-dressed Baroness Shackleton, and did not flinch when she climbed into the witness box to swear her oath on the Koran.
Even before his estranged wife took the stand, the sheikh was desperately looking for a way out. He had started the High Court case, but had rapidly lost control of it.
His children were formally made wards of the court, meaning all significant decisions in their lives were now in the hands of the judge.
He was apparently aghast at the prospect of being dragged into the court. As with most family court hearings, the judge wanted the father to give evidence in person.
Under no circumstances, the message came back loud and clear, was this Arab statesman going to subject himself to such a spectacle.
With reverse gears crunching, the sheikh tried to pull out of the case. It could not be reported at the time, but he completely abandoned his demand for the ‘summary return’ of his children.
Yet still the case went on, with Sir Andrew refusing his permission to withdraw and making clear he still had to make ‘findings of fact’ in order to inform future decisions about the children’s welfare.
During the ensuing ‘fact-finding’ hearing, Haya’s claims went uncontested because the sheikh’s entire legal team walked out of court.
Eventually the case would backfire on the sheikh spectacularly, leading him to lose his children, his wife – and his standing as an international statesman.
How ‘£1m’ prizefighter QC fought for Dubai ruler against team led by Prince Charles’s divorce lawyer Fiona Shackleton in ‘£5.2m’ courtroom battle royale
The ruler of Dubai hired ‘prizefighter’ top QC Lord Pannick for a bumper £1million, the Daily Mail understands.
The astonishing amount for Lord Pannick QC, one of the best lawyers in Britain, was agreed when he was recruited by the ruler to revive his case.
He is one of eight QCs hired by the billionaire Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s, along with five junior barristers and large teams of solicitors from two firms.
The legal costs for all sides in the case – which has involved some 17 QCs – is estimated to be £5.2million.
Lord Pannick, described in a profile in The Times as a ‘prizefighting legal titan’ successfully represented businesswoman Gina Miller in her Supreme Court challenge last year about the government’s prolonged prorogation of parliament.
David Pannick QC arrives at the Supreme Court in central London, on the second day of the hearing into the decision by the government to prorogue parliament on September 18, 2019. He is one of eight QCs hired by the billionaire sheikh, along with five junior barristers and large teams of solicitors from two firms
When asked to comment on claims that he was receiving a £1million fee, Lord Pannick said to the Mail: ‘I never comment on my fees – whether what you have said is accurate or inaccurate.’
On the other side of the courtroom, Princess Haya, the Sheikh’s ex-wife and opponent, headed her team with Charles Geekie QC, a leading family law silk, with a focus on matters involving children.
According to the Legal 500, a directory of barristers in the UK, Mr Geekie is ‘renowned for his handling of extremely complex and sensitive children matters.’
‘[He] routinely engages in cases relating to sexual, emotional and physical abuse,’ the review adds.
Instructing Mr Geekie was Princess Haya’s solicitor, Baroness Fiona Shackleton, who represented Prince Charles in his 1996 divorce of Princess Diana.
Baroness Shackleton’s fees for divorce cases have been reported at over £500 per hour.
In addition to the royal divorce, Baroness Shackleton represented Sir Paul McCartney in his split from Heather Mills in 2008, where legal bills exceeded £100,000.
One of Shackleton’s former clients revealed the Baroness had charged £95,000 for advice on a child support case. The case was later dropped and the client paid his own costs.
Princess Haya, 45, the half-sister of King Abdullah II of Jordan, who is wealthy in her own right, was in court to apply for her children to be made wards of court.
She also asked the High Court in London to make a series of findings of fact about Sheikh Mohammed, in particular in relation to the kidnap and forcible detention of two of his adult daughters from another marriage almost two decades apart.
She was also applying for a forced marriage protection order in relation to Princess Jalila and a non-molestation order for her own protection.
The princess studied philosophy and economics at Oxford University and is a keen equestrian, representing Jordan at the 2000 Olympics.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, who abducted and detained two of his adult daughters against their will almost two decades apart, a High Court judge has found
The mother-of-three attended almost every hearing, flanked by Baroness Shackleton and a security detail, but Sheikh Mohammed did not attend one.
Sheikh Mohammed’s legal team insisted prior to the fact-finding hearing that the ruler ‘could not and would not’ attend to give evidence.
Lord Pannick told the court that, if the fact-finding went ahead, Sheikh Mohammed’s lawyers would ‘play no active part in these proceedings’.
But Sir Andrew refused to allow him to withdraw, after Mr Geekie told the court that it would not be right that ‘the father’s wish to avoid the scrutiny of the court should deployed in order to reduce the protection that is available to the children’.