LONDON: 28 May 2020
LONDON
Leading Spanish newspaper El País covered the case of Princess Latifa on 3rd June 2020. The article discussed the 4th instalment of the award-winning news show 60 minutes Australia with updates on the campaign to free Latifa and news about her stepmother, Princess Haya of Jordan’s custody case in the English courts.
FreeLatifa campaign co-founder, Human Rights lawyer David Haigh was interviewed by El Pais on his work for Princess Latifa and other Emirati women.
The full article in Spanish can be read here: https://elpais.com/gente/2020-06-02/otra-joven-princesa-pide-ayuda-para-escapar-de-dubai.html
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Notes to editors
About Free Latifa: PrincessLatifa stands for every person, especially every woman, who is held against their will when they have done nothing wrong. The Free Latifa Campaign is run by Latifa’s family, closest friends, supporters and advisers. It is headed by Latifa’s best friend Tiina Jauhiainen as Campaign Director, human rights lawyer and campaigner David Haigh, Latifa’s cousin Marcus Essabri, and Latifa’s close friends Stephania Martinengo and Marco Remes. The campaign also benefits from the support of Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Detained International and a growing number of Latifa’s family, supporters, media, lawyers, politicians and celebrities around the world. “The campaign’s main goal is to #FreeLatifa, but it is also about the wider theme of justice and human rights in the Gulf, and it is run in a spirit of positivity and respect for all individuals Updates on the campaign can be found on www.freelatifa.com
David Haigh was held for 22 months, most of it without charge, in a Dubai prison (2014-16). The former managing director of Leeds United was lured to Dubai to resolve a contractual dispute with his former employer, GFH of Bahrain (who owned Leeds Utd, 2012-15), thrown in jail before any negotiations could take place, and was only released after being raped and tortured.
Tiina Jauhiainen was working in Dubai in 2010 when she met Latifa. The two became friends, and Tiina helped Latifa escape Dubai on 24 February 2018. Before they left, Latifa made a powerful 45-minute video revealing the real story of how her father treats his family and the state of Dubai, a video that was to be published if her escape. It has been viewed by tens of millions worldwide since she was kidnapped by her father’s troops and forcibly taken back to Dubai.
Press Contact
Tiina Jauhiainen and David Haigh
Campaign to Free Latifa
Email: latifa@freelatifa.com
Telephone: + 44 (0) 203 900 1188
Twitter: @freelatifa
Facebook: @freelatifa
Instagram: @freelatifa
The founders and leading activists of the Free Latifa campaign have escalated legal action against Radha Stirling of Detained in Dubai, alleging harassment, defamation and cybercrime.
Following comments last week by Radha Stirling relating to a Dubai Civil Court financial judgement involving David Haigh, a public statement was issued by Mr Haigh over the weekend setting out the background to his own legal action against Radha Stirling, together with information on her partner Shahid Bolsen, and their organisation, Detained in Dubai. Now Tiina Jauhiainen, Co-Founder of the Free Latifa campaign, has issued her own statement in relation to Radha Stirling and Detained in Dubai:
“Since I decided to part ways with Radha Stirling and Detained in Dubai in January 2019, I have been subjected to a vicious and vindictive campaign of harassment, abuse and defamation of the worst and most upsetting kind. Disappointingly, it came from a woman whom I thought I could trust and who claimed to be a human rights advocate and even a lawyer. Since our association ended, she appears to have felt the need to make up story after story about me and even publish on Twitter copies of my personal information”
“I sat quietly for over a year as I didn’t want anything to get in the way of our campaign to Free Latifa, even though it was often very hard to ignore Radha Stirling’s blatantly unfair and untrue statements. But then earlier this year I appointed leading litigation law firm Rosenblatt and started legal action in relation to various matters including grave breaches of my confidential information and personal data by Ms Stirling and Detained in Dubai. Her response was to publish my Data Protection Request on Twitter, late at night, even though it was later deleted”
“The list of her unfounded and offensive allegations continues to grow and change almost daily as Ms Stirling seems to wish to reinvent history. Including suggesting I was paid $15,000 a month by Latifa; Ms Stirling’s claim of having saved my life; Ms Stirling’s claim that “Dubai has cited Tiina’s financial gain as evidence that Latifa was manipulated and conveyed this to Mary Robinson during her visit.”[1]; Ms Stirling’s partaking in a self-published book that called me a witch and worse (it has since been pulled); and several other things, many of which have been repeated on social media by ‘trolls’ whom I believe are instructed Ms Stirling. Despite countless requests from myself and also from my solicitors to Radha Stirling to remove such false statements, she continually refuses to do so”
“One of the final straws for me came last year, when David Haigh managed to recruit the high-profile American lawyer Lisa Bloom to help with the campaign to free Latifa and act on mine and Latifa’s behalf, only for her to walk away after she suffered several days of abuse from Ms Stirling’s accounts, including one in the name of Latifa (controlled by an employee of Detained in Dubai) that she has no right to run because she has no authority to speak on Latifa’s behalf”
“I seek no conflict with fellow campaigners against injustice, but I have now concluded that Radha Stirling no longer deserves to be considered a campaigner against injustice.”
[1] https://www.detainedindubai.com/princesslatifa
