Mary Robinson and the Princess

Muahahaha wrote: »

It seems the reason she came out with that media appearance today admitting that she was tricked is because BBC Panorama are showing an investigation on Princess Latifa tonight and it contains footage that makes clear Robinson was completely blindsided anyway. So she is not admitting this off her own bat, instead she is doing damage control on her own sullied reputation before the documentary airs later on tonight.

In it somehow Latifa got hold of a mobile phone and sent videos of herself in captivity to friends who shared it with the BBC. The doc will also say that there are 30 police guarding the villa she is in 24/7 and she isnt even allowed to have a toothbrush, no doubt on orders from the Sheikh himself.

Robinson owes Latifa a public apology because she got duped into sitting beside a victim of kidnapping and as a result we are only hearing the real story of what is happening to Latifa tonight, more than a year after Robinson pronounced that she is a troubled girl who is safe with a family that loves her.

What time is BBC programme tonight? Thanks.

Quantum Erasure wrote: »

8:30, BBC One

Thanks. I saw it. Very disturbing but no surprise. Our betters, queens, popes, presidents, human rights commissioners etc need to be more careful about who they hobnob
with. They should know better than to be distracted by foreign trips, fast horses and cordon bleu meals.

Fair play to the useful idiot Mary Robinson.
This girl is now effectively a prisoner.

I love how our heroine throws whoever she can under a bus, saying she was mislead by Princess Haya.

Serious dummy.

A very intelligent woman like Mrs Robinson is not so easily fooled.

I feel there is more behind this.

It's sad really because she did a lot of good in the past and now her reputation is on the line.

Of course the real victim is the young woman and the old woman's story is only peripheral.

vapor trails wrote: »

Sheik Mohammed would have fairly large operations here in Ireland. Kildangan Stud is one of about 6 in this country. He has horses in training with Willie McCreery and Jim Bolger I think. Horse racing is a government-funded sport in this country with it due to receive around €90m directly from Government coffers in 2021.

Yeah and across Sheikh Mohammeds various studs in Ireland he has hundreds of people employed here. I wonder how all those employees feel knowing their employer is basically someone who doesnt think twice about ordering kidnapping and torture? I know they're there for the love of horses and racing but jesus I wouldnt feel comfortable to being in the pay of someone like that, you'd really have to adopt a hear no evil, see no evil approach.

I havent seen the doc yet, can anyone give some detail on what Latifa said in the video she got out to her friends and the media. Was thinking she must of memorised the phone number of her friend to do it.

seamus wrote: »

I think it is what it says on the tin.

She went at the invite of someone she believed to be a good and honourable friend, and took them at their word about their daughter being mentally unwell, and reported that.

Same as most of us would if in the same situation. Her time as a head of state and human rights commissioner probably betrayed her in this instance; she wouldn't have been used to "peaceful" heads of state engaging in dirty tricks, so she took what they said at face value.

Yeah but heres the thing. From 1997 to 2002 Robinson was the UN Commissioner for Human Rights. Part of her job then was to know about all things kidnapping and torture, be that journalists working in despotic regimes who got locked up in show trials or Princesses being kidnapped.

In 2000 another one of Sheikh Mohammeds 26 children Princess Shamsa got kidnapped off the streets of Cambridge, she was put on a helicopter and then a plane back to Dubai She hasnt been seen since and theres a pretty high likelihood he had her killed. Robinson simply must of known of this kidnap as it was her job to know and to speak out about it. If she didnt know about it through the UN all she had to do was read about it in the Guardian who wrote an article on it back in 2001.

Then in 2002 Princess Latifa tries to escape the Sheikh by crossing the border into Oman. She too gets kidnapped and brought back across the border where the Sheikh has her thrown into prison for three and half years in solitary confinement and where she was tortured. Again Robinson in her position should have known that the Sheikh once again had kidnapped one of his daughters who was trying to escape. Robinson didnt speak up about this either.

Had Robinson spoken up about those two kidnappings while she was UN Commissioner for Human Rights then she would never have found herself in the position she is in now 20 years later with egg all over her face. But she didnt, instead she seemed to prefer some kind of loyalty to her friend Princess Haya and kept her mouth shut because she didnt want to insult the Sheikh, a guy who literally ordered kidnap and torture. I would now see Robinsons silence on the two kidnappings in 2000 and 2002 as a complete dereliction of duty in her position as UN Commissioner of Human Rights.

Whats worse is now just today the office of the current UN Commissioner on Human Rights are saying they are going to question the UAE about Latifas imprisonment. The UN Working Group on Arbiraty Detention are saying they're going to open an investigation

We are hoping [a UN investigation] will be decisive in finally getting Princess Latifa released," Rodney Dixon, a lawyer who presented the case to the UN, told the BBC.

"The UN needs to have a very serious meeting directly with those who are holding [her] and make sure an agreement is reached so she can be released," he said.

So they're doing something now almost 20 years later but under Robinsons tenure at the UN she did nothing. As a result of that if Shamsa is still alive it means she has now been locked up for 21 years, likely in solitary confinement. Latifa has been locked up since 2002, aside from her second failed escape attempt in 2018 during which UAE commandoes kidnapped her again off a yacht in the Indian Ocean.

Growing up I always has a lot of respect for Mary Robinson. She was a trail blazer in her day and her election as Irelands first female President was symbolic of a changing Ireland that was moving away from decades of being ruled by Catholic Church dogma and towards a more liberal society. But this episode for me has left her reputation completely in the toilet. Shes a human rights lawyer who choose not to speak up about human rights. Any criticism she gets from here on is entirely justified, she created this mess for herself by not doing her job in the first place. And as a consequence of that two women have spent decades locked up. Only now 20 years later do they have any hope.

The story moves on. Now Latifa has managed to get a letter smuggled out asking the UK police to re-investigate the kidnapping of her sister Princess Shamsa off the streets of Cambridge in 2000. At the time the police had an investigation open but it was reported it went nowhere because the Foreign Office told them to put a lid on it.

Princess Latifa, the captive daughter of Dubai's ruler, has appealed to UK police to re-investigate the kidnap of her older sister from a Cambridge street more than 20 years ago.

In a letter shared with the BBC, Latifa tells Cambridgeshire police this could help free Princess Shamsa, who was captured on the orders of their father. Shamsa, who was just 18 then and is now 39, has not been seen in public since. The government of Dubai has not responded to BBC requests for comment.

A High Court judge ruled in 2019, that Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum had abducted both daughters and held them against their will. Last week BBC Panorama broadcast shocking videos Latifa had secretly recorded on a phone she had been given, in which she described how she was being held "hostage" by her father following a failed escape attempt in 2018. The UN has since asked the United Arab Emirates for proof that Latifa is alive.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-56188745

Latifa also alleges that Shamsa was tortured in captivity, they caned her feet according to her account.

elperello wrote: »

A very intelligent woman like Mrs Robinson is not so easily fooled.

I feel there is more behind this.

It's sad really because she did a lot of good in the past and now her reputation is on the line.

Of course the real victim is the young woman and the old woman's story is only peripheral.

Depends on how you measure intelligence

elperello wrote: »

Not sure what your point is.

Are you referring to a lack of emotional intelligence?

She will be on the LLS tonight trying to explain things. Should be worth a watch.

Being interviewed by Mr Establishment she should be safe enough and wont be asked too many awkward questions.

Muahahaha wrote: »

The story moves on. Now Latifa has managed to get a letter smuggled out asking the UK police to re-investigate the kidnapping of her sister Princess Shamsa off the streets of Cambridge in 2000. At the time the police had an investigation open but it was reported it went nowhere because the Foreign Office told them to put a lid on it.


https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-56188745

Latifa's handwritten letter, which was passed to the Cambridgeshire force by her friends on Wednesday, urges action for her sister by British authorities. It was written in 2019 while she was being held in solitary confinement in a "jail villa".

So the letter was written in 2019, has there been any word from her since?

seamus wrote: »

Soft enough interview from Ryan, but I don't think he avoided any hard questions tbh.

Mary acknowledged straight out that she let her heart rule her head, she was duped into doing/seeing what the royals wanted, and that she should have done better. She was genuinely contrite.

She's 77 this year. Unfair I think for a previous poster to claim she's ill based on a 3rd hand guess from a friend. But you can tell she doesn't have the energy she did in the past.

She was probably hoping at this stage of her life to spend her time reading and just providing advice , but now feels obliged to get actively involved in righting this issue.

He should have asked why she waiting till now to go public, but it was a fair interview, or the bits of that I saw seemed fair - he really didn't let her off the hook.

Ridiculous really from Robinson given her background, and nigh on inexcusable. Former High Commsioner of Human Rights no less. The UAE have a horrendous record in that respect and - as pointed out - much of this family's sordid history is a matter of public record.

This goes beyond naivety into a sort of delusion in Robinson's part. Saying she should have known better doesn't really cover it.

Mary is essentially a kidnapper

photo of latifa out at mall with 2 women https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-57204775 doubts she free though

some more photos of her out on other occasions https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/princess-latifa-free-as-lawyers-target-dubai-sheikh-gp2h9jcq0

in Spain now but how much security https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2021/0621/1229528-dubai-princess-latifa/ would or could she leave them permanently?