In London, the High Court has ordered Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, to contribute a British history of more than 554 million pounds ($733 million) to resolve a custody fight with his ex-wife over their two children.
The majority of the enormous judgement to Princess Haya bint al-Hussein, Jordan’s King Abdullah’s half-sister, and the couple’s two children is to secure their lifetime security, including dealing with the “severe risk” presented to them by the sheikh himself, according to the judge, Philip Moor.
“She is not seeking an award for herself other than for security,” the judge noted, and to compensate her for the items she lost as a result of the divorce.
He ordered Mohammed to pay Haya 251.5 million pounds in three months for the upkeep of her British residences, as well as money she claimed she owed for jewellery and racehorses, as well as future security expenditures.
The sheikh, who is also the UAE’s vice president and prime minister, was also ordered to pay 3 million pounds towards the education of Jalila, 14, and Zayed, 9, as well as 9.6 million pounds in arrears. He was also ordered to pay £11.2 million per year for the children’s upkeep and security when they reach adulthood.
These payments will be secured by a 290 million pound HSBC bank security. Despite the fact that some London attorneys believe the final sum is the greatest public award ever ordered by an English family court, it is less than half of the 1.4 billion pounds Haya had originally requested.
Haya, 47, spoke for over seven hours, claiming that a significant one-time payment would allow for a clean break and remove the sheikh’s control over her and their children.
She told the court, “I genuinely want to be free, and I sincerely want them to be free.”
The massive financial settlement is the latest twist in a legal odyssey that began when the princess fled to Britain in April 2019, worrying for her protection after she started an affair with one of her bodyguards and a month after she had requested a divorce from the sheikh.
Later that year, a London court concluded that Mohammed had terrorised her with violence and intimidation, and that he had previously kidnapped and abused two of his kids from a previous marriage.
Mohammed had also ordered the phones of Haya and her lawyers, one of whom is a parliamentary lawmaker, to be hacked using the powerful “Pegasus” state security software, according to the President of the Family Division in England and Wales, a senior court.
Haya has made no formal request for a divorce case. She did not provide an explanation, but her lawyers claimed that as the ex-wife of one of the world’s wealthiest men, she would have been entitled to billions.
“The mother’s pecuniary claims, and the magnitude of the relief sought, are very unprecedented,” the sheikh’s lawyer, Nigel Dyer, told the court during sessions that were not reported until Tuesday.
He claimed that her demands were unreasonable and that she was asking for herself under the pretext of her children. He also accused the princess of squandering the children’s cash, alleging that she paid 6.7 million pounds to blackmailers who were members of her security team in order to keep an affair hidden.
The alleged blackmailers were not heard in court. Haya claimed that she borrowed money from the children’s accounts because she was afraid.
The 70-Million-Pound Legal Battle
Nicholas Cusworth, Haya’s lawyer, said legal fees had totaled more than 70 million pounds over the course of two and a half years, adding that “the actual extent of (Mohammed’s) massive sums spent will never be known.”
According to the terms of the settlement, the majority of Haya’s financial prize would be spent on security. This was to protect the children from their own father abducting them, according to the judgement, which included money for a fleet of armoured automobiles that would be renewed every few years.
Haya and her children, according to Moor, need the considerable protection not only from the sheikh, but also because of their royal rank.
“The primary threat they face is from (the sheikh) himself, not from outside sources,” Moor explained.
“There will always be a clear and present risk to (Haya) for the rest of her life, whether it’s from (Mohammed) or just from a regular terrorist,” he said, alluding to the security threats that someone in Haya’s position faces.
Haya’s head of security, known only as ‘Director 1,’ had to be brought into the courtroom with the windows blacked out, covered from everybody save Moor and two lawyers by a curtain, and his name written on a sheet of paper to give evidence concerning her security demands.