- Dubai’s Sheikh Mohammed ‘abusive’ – UK court rulings
- Ex-wife Princess Haya is said to have sole custody of children
- The judgment concludes an extraordinary three-year legal battle
LONDON, March 24 – Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, has inflicted “exorbitant” domestic abuse on his ex-wife, a senior British judge has concluded as he gave her sole responsibility for care transmitted to their children.
The ruling caps the end of an extraordinary, bitter and enormously expensive three-year custody battle in the High Court in London between Mohammed and his former wife, Princess Haya bint al-Hussein, half-sister of Jordan’s King Abdullah.
A statement issued on behalf of Sheikh Mohammed said he loved his children and would always take care of them. “He continues to deny the allegations made in this contentious proceeding,” it said.
The case includes revelations of kidnapping, death threats, the princess’s affair with a bodyguard, extortion, espionage and sophisticated phone hacking against a backdrop of mansions, expensive clothing, millions of dollars in jewelry and racehorses. Continue reading
The London court has previously ruled that the ruler of Dubai had scared Haya for her life, kidnapped and abused two of his daughters through another marriage and ordered the phones of Haya and her lawyers, one of them British lawmakers, to be hacked using home security software “Pegasus”.
It has also found that Mohammed, the vice-president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, has a British record of more than £554 million ($730.50 million) to pay for the long-term security and upkeep of the children. Continue reading
In his final decision, Andrew McFarlane, president of the Family Department in England and Wales, said Mohammed had “consistently demonstrated coercive and controlling behavior” towards family members who opposed his will.
“Although conducted on a scale totally outside the ordinary circumstances of cases brought before family court in that jurisdiction, the father’s conduct towards the mother of his children constitutes ‘domestic violence,'” McFarlane said.
Haya alone should determine all matters related to the education and health of the couple’s two children, Jalila, 14, and Zayed, 10, with only keeping Mohammed informed, the judge concluded.
McFarlane said his relationship with the children will be limited to phone calls and texts after the Sheikh himself decided not to contact them directly.
“Coercion and Control”
Haya thanked the British justice system and said she will raise her children to respect the traditions of both their countries of origin. “Jalila, Zayed and I are not pawns to use for division,” she said in a statement.
The release of the social decision on Thursday marks the conclusion of the case, which has cost well over £70million in legal fees, which McFarlane describes as “really huge legal costs”.
The judge said Mohammed, who runs the Godolphin horse racing business, was a father who loved his two children and that they loved him in turn.
But he criticized the sheikh’s behavior and his refusal to even acknowledge his ex-wife’s role in looking after the children.
“His Highness’s conduct towards the mother…whether through threats, poetry, coordinating press reports, secretly arranging the purchase of property that you directly overlook, hacking the phone, or conducting this lawsuit, was to a high degree abusive, even exorbitant. Degrees,” McFarlane said.
“Despite the court’s findings, His Highness has in no way accepted that any of these conducts took place or that he participated in the orchestration.”
The Sheik played no role in the court proceedings.
The saga between the royals began shortly after Haya fled to the UK in April 2019, fearing for her safety after discovering she was having an affair with a bodyguard.
She was later blackmailed by four members of her security team while the sheikh staged an intimidation campaign against her and later hacked her and her lawyers’ phones, previous court findings have shown.
The verdicts against Mohammed do not appear to have affected his international standing or the relations between Britain, Dubai and the United Arab Emirates.
The oil-rich Gulf state pledged to invest £10 billion ($13.6 billion) in Britain’s clean energy, infrastructure, technology and life sciences last September, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson described it as a key one during a visit to Abu Dhabi last week international partners .
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Reporting by Michael Holden Editing by Nick Macfie and Frances Kerry