Sheikha Latifa, one of Sheikh Mohammed’s daughters and Shamsa’s sister, escapes on a yacht with the help of her capoeira instructor and an alleged former French spy. When their boat is suddenly ambushed by Indian Special Forces, Latifa’s bid for freedom seems dashed. But she’s recorded a video that could change everything. Click ‘Subscribe’ at the top of the Infamous show page on Apple Podcasts or visit GetTheBinge.com to get access wherever you get your podcasts. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices A Campside Media & Sony Music Entertainment production. To connect with Infamous's creative team and gain access to behind the scenes content, join our community at Campsidemedia.com/join Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is Sheikha Latifa's escape plan?
August 2017. Tina Yauhiainen was standing in a hotel lobby in the Philippines. It's hot, humid, the kind of weather that makes your shirt stick to your back. Tina was probably thinking, what am I doing here? She was just a Finnish capoeira instructor who was in Dubai for its good standard of living. Then she taught Sheikha Latifa. And now that princess needed her help.
She basically told me that there is a person outside Dubai who is ready to take care of the operation, to help her leave. It was quite a strange moment.
Chapter 2: Who is Hervé Jobert and what is his role?
Hervé Jobert had been working in Dubai making submarines. The business he worked for was a subsidiary of a government-owned conglomerate called Dubai World. But Gilbert had problems with this company. They would allege he embezzled, and he would deny that. And so he escaped. Oh, also, Gilbert claims he was once a French spy.
In a book he wrote about his adventures, Escape from Dubai, he says for his own departure from the country, he was cunning. He dressed like an Emirati woman in a long black robe called an abaya, which covered him from head to toe. He pulled a thin black veil over his face. Using these clothes to hide wasn't unheard of. I mean, Michael Jackson did it when he visited Dubai.
Someone spotted him in the women's bathroom with a headscarf on and it was a whole thing.
Avail was the best way to go around Dubai without being questioned or even addressed by another person.
It was like being invisible, because if you're in a veil, you're a woman. And in some of the Arab world, that means no one cares about what you have to say. From Campside Media and Sony Music Entertainment, this is Infamous.
I'm Vanessa Grigoriadis. And I'm Natalie Robamed. This is Dubai's Missing Princesses, Episode 2. So last episode, we heard all about Princess Latifah and her sister Shamsa, who had tried to run away years before Latifah.
Right. That seems to have had a really big impact on Latifah. I think the fallout from Shamsa's escape was the catalyst for Latifah's own escape.
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Chapter 3: How did Sheikha Latifa attempt to escape Dubai?
Yeah, it does seem that way. And now we're going to hear exactly how Latifa escaped. And it's mostly from Tina's perspective. We'll hear what happened after she ran away. So it all began in February 2018 at a cafe in Dubai called La Serre. It's in downtown Dubai, spitting distance from the tallest building in the world. Early one morning, a royal driver drops Latifa and Tina off for breakfast.
I can picture the scene around them. Women with designer handbags, sipping lattes. Men in their traditional white robes, dish dashes in Arabic. They're chatting over espressos. First, Latifa strode to the bathroom. She took off her black abaya, applied makeup, and put on sunglasses. As they departed, Latifa left her cell phone behind. She and Tina headed to Muscat, the coastal capital of Oman.
It's about a four and a half hour drive. On the way, they took some selfies. Then they pulled into the beach. There was a dinghy there that had been waiting for them, and they climbed in. Tina's friend and a personal trainer, he drove the dinghy. They went out about 15 miles into the turquoise sea. Joubert was there. He was waiting with a pair of jet skis.
The sea was really rough at that time. So it's definitely a journey I'm not going to forget ever. You know, being in the middle of the sea, the sun was starting to go down.
Several miles later, they reached a yacht that Joubert was piloting. It was named the Nostromo. That's Italian for shipmate, and it's a very popular name for boats. It's also the name of the spaceship in the movie Alien.
In 2122, the USCSS Nostromo was on a routine transport run when it picked up a signal of unknown origin in the Zeta Reticuli system.
This Nostromo was a white yacht with a navy blue hull and two large masts. Not quite the super yacht that Latifa's father owns. Latifah climbed on board. She was determined to make it out this time. She was not going to be like Shamsa. She was going to get to safety. And her plan?
She was going to the grand city on a hill, the place of freedom, the place where Natalie and I both live, the United States. So they set out across the Arabian Sea. They watched movies, sent messages to friends. But were those messages secure? By now, Latifah knew her father would have discovered she was gone, and she worried about what he might do.
She got even more worried when they lost touch with the guy who piloted the dinghy. So Latifah sent a very important message, one that might save her life. That's after the break.
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Chapter 4: What happened during the ambush by Indian Special Forces?
When a young woman named Patty vanishes without a trace, her best friend launches a desperate search, and the trail leads to Kat Torres, a charismatic influencer with millions of followers. Her social media presence showcases a picture-perfect life, and she promises her followers a spiritual awakening. All they have to do is follow her lead.
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You're listening to Infamous from Campside Media.
So Latifa and Tina were on this boat on their way to America, but sailing towards India. But they weren't alone.
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Chapter 5: How did Indian and UAE officials respond to Latifa's escape?
There was some sort of small plane circling around us. We had been followed by a small boat for three days. The atmosphere in the boat was obviously quite tense.
It turned out that Sheikh Mo's office had reportedly gotten in touch with an FBI agent at the U.S. consulate in Dubai. According to USA Today, he asked for their help in locating Latifa. He told them the princess had been kidnapped and she needed urgent assistance. So this FBI agent pulled data from the boat's internet provider and they gave it to Dubai officials.
At this time, the UAE government was also believed to be a client of the NSO Group, a cyber intelligence technology firm and creators of a spyware tool called Pegasus, which can secretly hack and extract data from people's phones. At this point, Latifa and Tina were off the coast of Goa. That's a resort town in India that's very popular with young people, full of dance clubs.
This whole life that Latifa wanted was almost there to touch. But for now, Tina and Latifa were still below deck in their room. Then they heard a noise.
We heard what sounded like gunshots from the upper deck.
The cabin began filling with smoke, and they could barely see anything. They struggled up the stairs to the deck.
They were staggering from coughing so hard. Finally saw, was there, Indian commandos dressed in black gear, obviously. I had multiple laser sights pointing at me. It was unreal. I sort of switched off. It's almost like... I wasn't there anymore. It was beyond understanding what was happening.
You know, we were so close to India and all of a sudden the boat is filled with these very aggressive men who are threatening to shoot my brain out. They are obviously looking for Latifa.
These men were from the Indian Special Forces. One of them boarded the boat, tied Tina's hands behind her back, and dragged her to the deck. The men kept shouting, asking who Latifa was, and Latifa just kept repeating, over and over, I am seeking political asylum. I am seeking political asylum. But the men just dragged her away, kicking and screaming. Tina heard her say something.
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Chapter 6: What were the consequences for Tina and the crew?
She was telling them to rather shoot her there than take her back to Dubai.
Tina watched on in fear as Latifa was carried away by the men. Guards looted the boat, taking electronics and even Tina's makeup.
I was told that I could jump off the boat as well if I wanted to end my life in an easier way.
Tina was left on the Nostromo with the crew and the guy who had coordinated this entire escape, Hervé Jobert. Jobert, by the way, responded to some questions from us, but declined to be interviewed for this series. At some point, Tina says she noticed there were UAE soldiers on the boat. It seemed to her that India was allowing them to be here, just turning a blind eye.
An Indian news outlet even reported that Sheikh Mo had called Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the situation. The two countries had a relationship. I mean, India had many, many citizens working in Dubai, building all those huge skyscrapers. Tina says that the UAE soldiers had access to two large helicopters. And now Latifah was getting hustled away.
The helicopters disappeared into the air. The Nostromo began to move. Once the boat reached the UAE, Tina says she and the rest of the crew were blindfolded, cuffed, and transported to the middle of the desert. There was a secret prison there. The interrogation began immediately.
I was asked why did I stab the ruler of Dubai in the back by aiding his daughter to escape Dubai. I was basically threatened with death penalty or life sentence.
As the men pressed Tina, she had the sense that these men thought it was all a plot. She was somehow involved in kidnapping Latifa to extort money from Sheikh Mohammed.
They were trying to find out who was the bigger plan, who was behind it all. So whenever I said, all I wanted to do is to help my friend to lead an independent life outside Dubai, they were just laughing and they said, you are lying. And because of your lies, we are going to kill you or you're never going to see your family again.
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