The ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, has been ordered by the United Kingdom’s High Court to pay his ex-wife Princess Haya Bint Al-Hussain and their two children a total of $733 million in divorce settlement. The divorce case is touted to be the biggest in British history.
On Tuesday, 21 December, Judge Philip Moor said that the settlement was set to protect Princess Haya and her two children from the potential threat that the Prime Minister poses to their security.
Of the total amount, Moor ordered the Sheikh to pay around £250 million upfront and provide a bank guarantee of £290m for annual payments to Princess Haya to compensate for her financial loss, the upkeep of her mansions and future security.
Judge Moor said, “I am entirely satisfied that this means that, although HRH (her royal highness Haya) and the children would require security provision in any event, given their status and the general threats of terrorism and kidnap faced in such circumstances, they are particularly vulnerable and need water-tight security to ensure their continued safety and security in this country,” reported Reuters.
The court had heard their divorce case in 2019 after Haya alleged that the Sheikh had hacked the phones of Haya and five of her associates and infected them with Pegasus spyware.
He added, “...the main threat they face is from HH (his highness the Sheikh) himself not from outside sources. This is compounded by the full weight of the state that he has available to him as seen by his ability to make use of the Pegasus software, which is only available to governments.”
(With inputs from Reuters and The Guardian.)
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