Shamsa Al Maktoum

Sheikha Shamsa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (, Shamsā bint Muḥammad bin Rāshid al-Maktūm; born 15 August 1981) is an Emirati princess and a member of the Dubai ruling family. Her father, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, is the prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, and her mother, Huriah Ahmed al M'aash, is from Algeria. She is the full sister of Sheikha Maitha (born 1980), Sheikha Latifa (born 1985) and Sheikh Majid (born 1987). In July 2000, whilst on holiday in the United Kingdom, she fled her family and stayed with friends in London. In August 2000, she was abducted by men working for her father off the street in Cambridge, and taken back to Dubai on a private jet. In 2020, a UK Family Court found that her father orchestrated her abduction. Disappearance in 2000 In summer 2000, Shamsa was in the United Kingdom on holiday with her extended family residing at their Longcross estate near Chobham in Surrey. In an attempt to seek a better future for herself and escape restrictions on her life in Dubai, she used the opportunity to flee from her family in mid July 2000. After her escape, she stayed with friends for a few weeks in a London flat before being found by her family. In August 2000, Shamsa was forcibly picked up by what she describes as four Arab men carrying guns from the streets of Cambridge while walking out of a bar and taken back to Dubai on a private jet. In March 2001, after having been contacted by a British solicitor who had spoken to Shamsa, Cambridgeshire police began investigating the incident. During inquiries, people close to Shamsa in the United Kingdom substantiated her story of escape, and the matter was raised in Parliament; the police investigation stalled, however, which was alleged at the time as being due to denial of access to her by Dubai authorities and non-cooperation of the Longcross estate staff. According to the Foreign Office, Sheikh Mohammed himself tried to intervene with the British government over the police investigation.