Haigh calls for full police investigation into perverting the course of justice and intimidating witnesses
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
London, 6 October 2021 – The finding by the High Court that Princess Haya of Jordan, the former wife of the ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, her legal team and others, were hacked using the highly controversial Pegasus software and had data stolen from her legal team is welcome confirmation of illegal activity to those who campaigned for the freedom of Sheikh Mohammed’s daughter, Sheikha Latifa Al Maktoum and in general against the arrogant impunity with which the UAE and its rulers abuse human rights and break the law.
Human rights lawyer and campaigner David Haigh, co-founder of the Free Latifa campaign and head of the human rights advocacy NGO Detained International, said, “The judgement comes as no surprise to us but is welcome as judicial confirmation of something that was clear all along.
“We knew last summer that we had been hacked. Researchers from Amnesty International have confirmed that the Pegasus spyware was installed on my phone on 3 August 2020 while I was in a London clinic, and as we were working with Princess Haya’s team at that time, we were aware of unusual activity that we always suspected was spying. It’s reassuring to have it confirmed by a court of law, but it’s hardly news to us.”
Haigh, the former managing director of Leeds United football club, was a patient at the Nightingale Clinic in London for treatment for the enduring effects of the 22 months he spent in arbitrary detention in Dubai jails between May 2014 and March 2016. Because he turned off his phone on admission, the feature by which Pegasus software deletes itself after downloading data didn’t function, leaving the highly controversial software on his smartphone, thereby giving human rights campaigners valuable evidence of both the software and its use to spy on critics of the state of Dubai.
Haigh added, “Today’s judgement confirms that agents acting for the state of Dubai and the United Arab Emirates perverted the course of British justice. The fact that this hacking took place while Haya was going through divorce and custody proceedings with Sheikh Mohammed means Dubai is in contempt of court and has intimidated witnesses. We call for a full police investigation into this flagrant abuse of British legal procedures by a sovereign state.”
Haigh was instrumental in the Free Latifa campaign, which smuggled a smartphone into the villa in Dubai where state forces were holding Latifa against her will after an Indian-Emirati commando action kidnapped her as she sailed in international waters in March 2018. Videos sent by Latifa via the phone were shown by the BBC programme Panorama on 16 February 2021, and the princess has since been allowed some international travel, though doubts remain as to how free she really is.
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Notes To Editors
About Detained International: Detained international is a legal advocacy NGO that provides pro bono legal advocacy to victims of injustice, inequality and other human rights violations in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates and wider Middle East.
Headquartered in London and Washington DC, Detained International was founded in 2018 by UAE torture victim David Haigh, a prominent human rights lawyer and justice and equality advocate. Detained International exists to help people in their hour of need, in many cases when they have been locked up far from home for no legitimate or even apparent reason and lack the support from obvious channels like their national embassy.
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