UK Foreign Sec, others on missing Dubai princess

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on Wednesday described new images of a Dubai princess' alleged imprisonment as "concerning," as human rights campaigners continued to call her for her immediate release.

The videos released by the BBC show Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum, a daughter of Dubai's powerful ruler, at a “jail villa,” apparently located in the skyscraper-studded city-state in the United Arab Emirates.

Raab said in a live interview on British broadcaster Sky News that it was "a very difficult case" and that the UK government would monitor "very closely" developments with the United Nations Human Rights Council.

There has not yet been an announcement by the UNHCR of any scheduled sessions regarding this case.

Human rights campaigner David Haigh told Sky News last week that he wants politicians to "wake up and see what the reality is."

Haigh said that Latifa is "essentially in solitary confinement, a hostage."

Her father, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, also serves as the prime minister and vice president in the hereditarily ruled UAE.

The government's Dubai Media Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

In 2018, the AP reported how a friend and an ex-French spy helped Sheikha Latifa escape by boat, only to be captured off India.

The BBC said Sheikha Latifa recorded the videos published on Tuesday in a bathroom at the villa over months on a phone she secretly received about a year after her capture.

The dramatic would-be sea escape and its aftermath intruded into the carefully controlled image maintained by the family of Sheikh Mohammed, who is believed to have several dozen children from multiple wives. Some of his sons and daughters figure prominently in local media and online, but others are rarely seen.