Runaway Wife of UAE Sheikh Asks UK Court for Protection

By Staff, Agencies

Princess Haya bint al-Hussein, the daughter of Jordan’s late King Hussein and half-sister to his successor King Abdullah, fled the UAE last month for Europe and is now understood to be in hiding in the United Kingdom. Emirati officials have declined to comment, citing the privacy of the case.

Princess Haya is seeking a forced married protection order in the UK, relating to one of her two children with Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, Reuters reports.

According to British laws, forced marriage protection is enforced to shield a person who has been or being forced into marriage, or is being threatened with one.

It is also understood that Princess Haya has applied for a ward-ship of her children, with whom she left the UAE – daughter Sheikha Al Jalila, 11, and son Sheikh Zayed, 7.

Sheikh Mohammed’s lawyers, meanwhile, have applied for the return of his children to Dubai.

The London embassy of the UAE declined to comment “on allegations about individuals’ private lives”, while the Dubai government described it as “a private matter that is being resolved in the court”.

Earlier this month, representatives of Sheikh Mohammed and his estranged wife said at a private hearing that “these proceedings are concerned with the welfare of the two children of their marriage and do not concern divorce or finances.”