LONDON – Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Al-Maktoum authorised the use of spying software to hack his ex-wife’s phone, said a British court ruling published yesterday.
The phone of Princess Haya Al Hussein, 47, and those of her lawyers and others in her entourage were hacked using Pegasus spyware during the pair’s acrimonious divorce custody case here, the high court found.
The 72-year-old sheikh, who is vice-president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, gave his “express or implied authority” for Haya’s phone to be hacked with the multimillion-pound software available only to governments, said the ruling.
Presiding judge Andrew McFarlane concluded that Mohammed was “prepared to use the arm of the state to achieve what he regards as right”, saying the surveillance of at least six phones was attempted.
“He harassed and intimidated (her) both before her departure to England and since.”
In March last year, McFarlane ruled on the balance of probability that the billionaire sheikh had ordered the abduction of two of his daughters by another marriage, and subjected Haya to a campaign of fear.
She was forced to flee to London in 2019 with their two children – Al Jalila, 13, and Zayed, 9 – as a result.
After Mohammed applied for the children to be returned to the Gulf kingdom, Haya – his sixth wife and a half-sister of Jordan’s King Abdullah II – filed for the kids to be made wards of the court, and requested a non-molestation order for herself.
The use of the Israeli-developed Pegasus, which can track a person’s location and read texts and emails, was revealed in August last year following a tip-off by lawyer Cherie Blair, whose husband is ex-British prime minister Tony Blair, to the princess’ legal team.
Rights groups have accused software developer NSO of allowing its spyware to facilitate state-sponsored repression after it was used to hack the phones of activists and journalists around the world.
A source close to NSO told AFP that the group cut off Pegasus services to the sheikh last December, in line with the firm’s stated rigorous procedures against the illegitimate use of its products.
“Whenever a suspicion of misuse arises, NSO investigates, NSO alerts, NSO terminates,” said a spokesman.
To this day, “NSO did not hesitate to shut down systems of past customers, worth above US$300 million (RM1.25 billion)”.
Mohammed has denied any knowledge of the hacking, but his lawyers suggested another country like Jordan may be responsible in efforts to embarrass him.
He has previously strongly denied the claims made by the princess in the case on their children’s welfare. – AFP, October 7, 2021
