UN Says Proof Princess Is Alive Is 'Urgently Required'

United Nations human rights experts say they have repeatedly asked Dubai for proof that Princess Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum, the ruler's daughter, is alive—and they have received only a statement that she is being "cared for at home." In a statement issued Tuesday, the UN asked for "concrete proof" of life and asked for "independent verification of the conditions under which she is being held, and for her immediate release," the BBC reports. In secretly recorded videos released earlier this year, the princess said she had been held in solitary confinement in a "villa converted into a jail" since an attempt to flee Dubai in 2018.

"Evidence of life and assurances regarding her well-being are urgently required," the statement from the UN's human rights office said. Earlier this month, officials said the United Arab Emirates' ambassador in Geneva had agreed, in principle, to a meeting about the 35-year-old princess, Reuters reports. "Her continued incommunicado detention can have harmful physical and psychological consequences and may amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment," experts warned in the UN statement. (More Princess Latifa stories.)