Billionaire ruler of Dubai hatched sinister phone hacking operation to spy on ...

Billionaire ruler of Dubai hatched sinister phone hacking operation to spy on ...
Billionaire ruler of Dubai hatched sinister phone hacking operation to spy on ...

The billionaire ruler of Dubai launched an illegal phone hacking operation on British soil to snoop on his runaway wife and her team of lawyers, it can be revealed today.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, 72, a friend of the Queen and close UK ally, ignored British laws to 'hunt' Princess Haya, 47, after she fled to London, telling friends she was in fear of her life, the High Court has found.

Haya's high-profile solicitor Baroness [Fiona] Shackleton, a Tory peer who famously acted for Sir Paul McCartney in his divorce, was among those targeted in the astonishing cyber hacking mission.

She reported her fears to Black Rod, the Monarch's representative in the House of Lords, saying that her 'Parliamentary email, my own email, my WhatsApp messages, my pictures and my texts are all visible to somebody else'.

In a surprising twist, the sinister black ops operation 'more probable than not' ordered by Sheikh Mohammed was rumbled by Cherie Blair, QC. Sheikh Mohammed has denied any knowledge of the hacking.

The barrister wife of former PM Tony Blair was working for a secretive Israeli firm which makes the military-grade Pegasus spyware used by Dubai's intelligence service and several other governments - and tipped off her fellow British lawyers that their phones were being tapped.

Not content with the spying operation, the Sheikh even resorted to trying to buy a huge £30m estate next door to Haya's Berkshire bolthole to keep even closer tabs on her and the couple's two children, the High Court was told.

His associates secretly tried to snap up English manor house Parkwood on 'the most expensive field in Britain', making the Princess feel 'hunted and haunted' in her 12-bedroom mansion Castlewood House next door, fearing that her children could be snatched from her by the Sheikh, the High Court heard.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

Princess Haya

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (left) hacked phones to snoop on his runway wife Princess Haya (right) after she fled to London, the High Court has found

When she asked the judge to impose a large 'exclusion zone' around her own home to stop him stalking her, the sheikh complained it would impede his access to Windsor Castle and Ascot racecourse.

The 77-acre Parkwood estate just outside London was dubbed Britain's most expensive plot when it went on the market in 2014 for £30million. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were among those said to have been interested.

It includes a manor house, a picturesque lake and formal gardens - but the sheikh wanted it for his surveillance teams to spy on his former wife and their two children, Princess Jalila, 13, and Prince Zayed, nine, next-door, her lawyers told the High Court.

The Court accepted there was no evidence that the sheikh, or anyone acting on his behalf, had been in close proximity to Castlewood House.

Sheikh Maktoum, one of the world's richest men, is already an international pariah for the armed kidnapping of his daughters - Princess Shamsa from the streets of Britain, and then Princess Latifa from her yacht when she too tried to flee Dubai.

In April 2019, when the sheikh's sixth and youngest wife, Princess Haya, found out what had happened to them, she ran away to Britain in fear of her life with the couple's two children.

In the two-and-a-half years since, she and the sheikh have been waging a monumental battle at the High Court in what has become probably the most expensive child custody wrangle in UK history.

The hearings have been held in private but today (wed), following an application by the Daily Mail and other media, the President of the Family Division Sir Andrew McFarlane allowed details of the case to be made public.

Cherie Blair

Baroness Shackleton

In a bizarre twist, Cherie Blair (left) helped exposes the hacking operation, which targeted - among others - Haya's lawyer

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