Sheikha Latifa also was shown and identified in pictures from 2016 and 2017 on an Instagram account connected to her skydiving club. Past articles in state-linked media also confirm she is a daughter of the ruler.
Aided by friend Tiina Jauhiainen, the sheikha made it into neighboring Oman and then took a small boat out to meet Jaubert and his crew aboard his U.S.-flagged sailboat, the Nostromo, the former spy said.
The Nostromo sailed for the Indian coast, but three Indian and two Emirati warships intercepted it on March 4, Jaubert said. A team of commandos boarded the boat in the Arabian Sea some 380 kilometers (235 miles) southwest of Mumbai, according to Jaubert and Detained in Dubai.
Jaubert said the Indian commandos beat him and his crew.
She gave Jaubert and lawyers the video, as well as pictures of an Emirati passport and an Emirati ID card identifying her as a member of the Dubai ruling family. Detained in Dubai later received the video to release if the escape went wrong.
In the video, Sheikha Latifa talks of her skydiving hobby. Kristen Cotten, a 33-year-old skydive instructor and friend of Sheikha Latifa, told the AP the woman in the video and the identification documents is indeed her friend.
“I think a lot of people think it’s fake just because it sounds so crazy,” said Cotten, who was an instructor in Dubai between 2012 and 2016 and now lives in Minnesota.
“If I hadn’t worked with her and known her and seen her every day I’d probably feel the same way. But that’s the same girl I saw every day at the drop zone.”
Sheikha Latifa also was shown and identified in pictures from 2016 and 2017 on an Instagram account connected to her skydiving club. Past articles in state-linked media also confirm she is a daughter of the ruler.
Aided by friend Tiina Jauhiainen, the sheikha made it into neighboring Oman and then took a small boat out to meet Jaubert and his crew aboard his U.S.-flagged sailboat, the Nostromo, the former spy said.
The Nostromo sailed for the Indian coast, but three Indian and two Emirati warships intercepted it on March 4, Jaubert said. A team of commandos boarded the boat in the Arabian Sea some 380 kilometers (235 miles) southwest of Mumbai, according to Jaubert and Detained in Dubai.
Jaubert said the Indian commandos beat him and his crew.
Detained in Dubai released Sheikha Latifa’s video and began a social media campaign calling for their release. Jaubert credited that for leading the Emiratis, who fed and treated him well but refused him access to a lawyer or consular official, to release him and Jauhiainen.
Both say they last saw Latifa being forced off the Nostromo onto one of the warships. But it remains unclear what has happened to her since. Messages sent by the AP to emails and telephone numbers associated with her have gone unanswered.
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