Princess Latifa's Finnish friend files torture complaint against Dubai ruler, Interpol chief

Lawyers representing a Finnish woman who helped Princess Latifa escape abuse in the United Arab Emirates have filed a lawsuit against the Emir of Dubai and the head of Interpol, accusing them of torture and human rights violations.

Tiina Jauhiainen, a capoeira instructor who had befriended the princess, said in a statement on Thursday that she had decided not to ignore the trauma any longer because the Emirati royals should not have to live with the consequences of what they have done.

"I have decided that I can no longer ignore this trauma and they cannot get away with what they did," Jauhiainen said in a statement on Thursday. 

Jauhiainen was with Princess Latifa in March 2018 when Emirati security forces, with the help of the Indian Navy, intercepted their fleeing boat off India's Malabar coast.

According to the complaint she filed in Germany on Thursday, Jauhiainen was detained and tortured for three weeks by the Emirati security forces.

Her lawyers say she was tied up for at least six days in a confined space on two different boats on the way back to the UAE.

In UAE, she was held in solitary confinement in a freezing cold room without windows for two weeks while undergoing up to 18 hours a day of interrogations, and also being threatened with death and torture, her lawyers said.

According to the complaint, the Emirati security services accused Jauhiainen of kidnapping Princess Latifa, and they doubt that she intended to set her free.

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Sheikha Latifa, one of Dubai ruler

Her lawyers say the Finnish woman was forced to sign various confession statements in Arabic and was released only after a media outcry and intervention by the Finnish government.

Now she has decided to file her complaint under the principle of universal jurisdiction and says she intends to fight "for what I was put through simply for trying to help a friend get out of an abusive situation".

"Those who kidnapped me and threatened and interrogated me acted with total impunity because they knew there would never be any consequences for their actions," Jauhiainen said.

In the complaint, the German public prosecutor is asked to investigate Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, and Major General Ahmed Naser Al-Raisi, then-head of the UAE Ministry of Interior at the time and is currently the head of the International Police, over their role in Jauhianen's torture.

Last year, videos were published in media that Latifa secretly recorded and sent to her friends abroad. In the videos, she announced her arrest and imprisonment after returning to the UAE. 

She said she was kept alone, without access to any medical help or even a lawyer, in a locked villa guarded by the police.

Photos have recently emerged of Latifa in Spain, a shopping mall in Dubai and Iceland, which has been backed by a campaign group that last June said there had been "very positive steps forward" in her personal freedom.

In February, Michelle Bachelet, UN human rights chief, said she had a private meeting with Latifa at the request of the princess, and after the meeting, she said in a statement that Latifa informed her that her general condition was good and that she wished her privacy be respected.

The UAE has repeatedly denied Latifa was forcibly returned or harmed at home but has never explained what happened between her arrest in March 2018 and when photos of her were released in early 2021.

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