The British court says Dubai Chief Mohammed ordered the wiretapping of the phone of his ex-wife and lawyer

The British High Court ruled that the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, ordered the wiretapping of the phone calls of his ex-wife and his lawyers in the battle for custody of his children as a “continuous intimidation and threatening activity. “a part of.

Muhammad used the complex “Pegasus” software developed by Israel’s NSO company for various countries to deal with national security risks, hacking into the phone of Princess Haya Bint Hussein, the half-sister of King Abdullah of Jordan, and Some people close to her, according to the ruling.

The people who worked for him also tried to buy a mansion near Haya Manor near the British capital. The intimidation ruled by the court made her feel chased and unsafe, as if she “cannot breathe anymore”.

The most recent ruling was 19 months after the court concluded that Muhammad had kidnapped his two daughters, abused them, and detained them against their wishes.

Judge Andrew McFarlane, Chairman of the Department of Family in England and Wales, said in the ruling: “The results of the investigation show a complete abuse of trust, and in fact a substantial abuse of power.”

Sheikh denied the allegations of hacking, and his lawyer argued that other countries in the Middle East may be the culprit.

“Father was not aware of any such activities,” his lawyer David Pennick told the court. “He did not authorize or instruct, encourage or in any way recommend any other person to use NSO or any software in this way.”

Ever since Mohamed, 72, and Haya, 47, fled to the UK with their two children, Jalila, 13 and Zayed, 9, she has been involved in a long, painful and expensive custody battle war. She said she was worried about her safety because someone suspected that she had an affair with one of her British bodyguards.

The target of the hacking included Haya’s lawyer Fiona Shackleton, a member of the British House of Lords who once represented the heir to the British throne, Prince Charles, divorced the late first wife, Princess Diana.

The court learned that in August last year, Cherie Blair, wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, urgently informed Shackleton that she and Haya had been hacked, and this activity came to light.

Blair is also a well-known lawyer who served as an external consultant for NSO.

The court was informed that at the same time, a cyber expert at the Citizens Lab, an Internet watchdog at the University of Toronto, who studies digital surveillance, also notified Haya’s lawyers after tracking down the hacking.

Haya’s lawyer said that once the hacking was discovered, the National Bureau of Statistics cancelled the contract with the UAE. The Israeli company said it could not immediately comment on the case, but said it would take action if it received evidence of the abuse of Pegasus.

Shackleton and Blair declined to comment.

Mohammed is considered a visionary force in Dubai’s rise as a global business center. He tried to improve the reputation of this Gulf city on issues such as human rights and peace.

There is no indication that last year’s ruling caused any major harm to him or the UAE. Last month, the United Kingdom and the UAE announced a “new and ambitious future partnership” involving billions of dollars in trade and investment.

After a year of hearings, restrictions on reporting of McFarland’s findings were lifted on Wednesday.

The British-educated princess said: “I don’t think I can move forward freely now, and I have been hunted and killed, every moment of the day I am forced to look back.” A witness statement.

The legal costs of this case amounted to millions of pounds, and the case involved some of the most famous lawyers in the UK. The court cited a cost of 2.5 million pounds for just one appeal.

The sheikh, the vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, initially tried to bring the children back to Dubai, but has since failed repeatedly in British courts.

In the verdict announced on Wednesday, McFarlane ruled that the children should live with their mother.

In a ruling announced in March last year, the judge concluded that Muhammad had carried out intimidation activities against Haya, which made her fear her life.

He concluded that the chief arranged for his 18-year-old daughter, Shamsa, to be kidnapped on the streets of Cambridge in central England in 2000 and then flown back to Dubai.

The judge also found that it turns out that Muhammad arranged for Shamsa’s sister Latifah to be taken by Indian troops on a ship in international waters off India in 2018 and returned to the emirate.

Although his findings do not constitute a determination of a criminal offence, they mean that McFarlane is satisfied that these allegations have been confirmed in the balance of possibilities, and this may affect future contact arrangements with his children.

“As determined by the results of previous factual investigations, the father, the head of the UAE government, is ready to use the power of the country to achieve what he thinks is right,” he said.

“Before and after she left the UK, he had been harassing and intimidating his mother. He was prepared to support those who acted illegally on his behalf in the UK.”

Haya’s lawyer told the court that the British Foreign Office had learned of the hacker allegations, and the police expressed their wish to interview Haya and his lawyer as a victim. Reuters could not determine whether this happened.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the police did not immediately comment.

This is not the first time the UAE’s online activities have been censored. Last month, three former U.S. intelligence agents who served as cyber spies in the UAE admitted to monitoring human rights activists, journalists and hostile governments in violation of the U.S. Hacking Act.

At the London hearing, Mohammed’s powerful team of lawyers fought for months to prevent the court from considering the hacking charges. They said it had no jurisdiction and he had immunity, and then tried to convince the judge that Sheikh was not responsible.

His legal team said that Saudi Arabia and Jordan are among many other countries that might support it.

McFarlane refuted these suggestions, saying that it might be Jordan’s idea “too illusory to have no consequences.”

“He didn’t show any concern about the safety of the child’s mother, but formed a strong forensic team to question the mother’s findings and fight her case at every point.”

McFarlane concluded that the Court of Appeal also agreed that the Chief had authorized hacking of six mobile phones between July and August 2020, when a vulnerability in Apple’s iPhone system was exploited.

Expert network analysis shows that once, Haya’s mobile phone uploaded 265 megabytes of data, which is equivalent to 24 hours of recording or 500 photos.

Exactly how much data there is and what information is obtained from her and other phones has not yet been determined.

Haya and Mohammed have been frequent visitors of the British upper class for decades, and both maintain friendly relations with members of the British royal family, including Queen Elizabeth.

The Chief has become a major player and investor in the British horse racing industry through the Godofen Stables he founded. His horse Adayar won the famous Epsom Derby flat race championship this year.

McFarlane also extended the previous prohibition against harassment order, which prohibits Sheikh from purchasing any land or property near rural Berkshire in West London after his agent tried to purchase an adjoining mansion worth 30 million pounds. , The mansion overlooks her home.

Haya told McFarlane in a statement: “It feels like a wall is approaching me. I can’t protect the children. We are not safe anywhere.”

“I feel like I can’t breathe anymore, it feels like I’m suffocated.”