LONDON: Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum ordered the phones of his ex-wife and her lawyers to be hacked as part of a “sustained campaign of intimidation and threat” during the custody battle over their children, England’s High Court has ruled.
Sheikh Mohammed used the sophisticated “Pegasus” software, developed by Israeli firm NSO, to hack the phones of Princess Haya bint al-Hussein, half-sister of Jordan’s King Abdullah, and some of those closely connected to her, according to the rulings.
Those working for him also tried to buy a mansion next door to Haya’s estate, intimidatory action that the court ruled had left her feeling hunted, unsafe and like she “cannot breathe anymore”. The latest rulings come 19 months after the court concluded that Sheikh Mohammed had abducted two of his daughters, mistreated them and held them against their will.
“The findings represent a total abuse of trust, and indeed an abuse of power to a significant extent,” Judge Andrew McFarlane, President of the Family Division in England and Wales, said in his ruling.
The sheikh rejected the court’s conclusions, saying they were based on an incomplete picture. “I have always denied the allegations made against me and I continue to do so,” he said in a statement. “In addition, the findings were based on evidence that was not disclosed to me or my advisers. I therefore maintain that they were made in a manner which was unfair.”
Mohammed, 72, and Haya, 47, have been involved in a long, bitter and expensive custody battle since she fled to Britain with their two children, Jalila, 13, and Zayed, 9. She said she feared for her safety amid suspicions that she had had an affair with one of her British bodyguards.
Lawyer’s phone hacked
Among those targeted by the hacking was Haya’s lawyer Fiona Shackleton, a member of Britain’s House of Lords who represented Prince Charles in his divorce from his late first wife Princess Diana.
The activity came to light in August last year after Shackleton was urgently tipped off by Cherie Blair, the wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, that she and Haya had been hacked, the court was told. Blair is also a prominent lawyer who worked as an external adviser for NSO.
At the same time a cyber expert from the University of Toronto’s internet watchdog Citizen Lab, which researches digital surveillance, also alerted Haya’s lawyers after tracking the hacking, the court heard. Once the hacking was uncovered, NSO cancelled its contract with the UAE, Haya’s lawyers said.
The legal costs of the case have run into millions of pounds, with the case involving some of Britain’s most prominent lawyers. The costs of one appeal alone were cited by the court as costing 2.5 million pounds.
The sheikh initially sought to have the children brought back to Dubai, but has since suffered repeated defeats in the English courts. In a judgment released on Wednesday, McFarlane ruled that the children should live with their mother.
In a ruling published last March, the judge concluded that Sheikh Mohammed had subjected Haya to a campaign of intimidation which made her fear for her life. He concluded the sheikh had arranged for his daughter Shamsa, then aged 18, to be kidnapped in 2000 off the streets of Cambridge and flown back to Dubai.
The judge also found it was proved that Sheikh Mohammed had arranged for Shamsa’s younger sister Latifa to be snatched from a boat in international waters off India by Indian forces in 2018 and returned to the emirate.
Haya’s lawyers told the court that the British Foreign Office had been made aware of the hacking allegations, and police had expressed a desire to interview Haya and her lawyers as victims.
London’s police said detectives began a five-month investigation last year after receiving allegations of phone hacking. But in February, the investigation was closed because of a lack of “further investigative opportunities”.
“I cannot breathe anymore”
During the London hearings, Sheikh Mohammed’s high powered team of lawyers battled for months to prevent the court from considering the hacking allegations, by saying it did not have the jurisdiction and that he had immunity, and then by trying to persuade the judge that the sheikh was not responsible.
In his statement, Sheikh Mohammed said it was not appropriate for him to appear in court himself and neither the UAE nor the emirate itself were party to the case and so could not participate.
Instead of showing any concern for the safety of the mother of his children, “he has marshalled a formidable forensic team to challenge the findings sought by the mother and to fight the case against her on every point,” McFarlane said.
He concluded, and the Court of Appeal agreed, that the sheikh had authorised the hacking of six phones which took place between July and August 2020 when a vulnerability in Apple’s iPhone systems was exploited.
Expert cyber analysis revealed that on one occasion 265 megabytes of data were downloaded from Haya’s phone, the equivalent of 24 hours of voice recording or 500 photos. Exactly how much data and what information was taken from her and the other phones has not been determined.
McFarlane also extended the provisions of a previous non-molestation order, which banned the sheikh from buying any land or property near her estate in rural Berkshire, west of London, after his agents tried to buy an adjoining 30 million pound mansion which overlooked her home.
“It feels like the walls are closing in on me, that I cannot protect the children and that we are not safe anywhere,” Haya told McFarlane in a statement. “I feel like I cannot breathe anymore; it feels like being suffocated.”
