The princess daughter of Dubai's all powerful ruler Sheikh Mohammed secretly plotted her escape from her strict father for seven years, according to a new documentary. Princess Latifa

bint Mohammed al-Maktoum was born into a life of extreme wealth but a meticulous plan to flee the controlling grip of her father failed nine months ago when the runaway royal's yacht

was intercepted off the coast of India. Witnesses on the boat claim Latifa was kidnapped by heavily armed Indian soldiers and taken back to Dubai, where she has not been seen since. New

details of her audacious escape are revealed in a BBC documentary, _Escape From Dubai_, which includes interviews with the French spy and Finnish capoeira teacher who tried to help her dash

to India before flying to the United States, where the seemingly privileged Dubai royal planned to seek political asylum. To make her escape, Princess Latifa also enlisted the help of

former French spy, Herve Jaubert, who himself had covertly fled the UAE in 2008 after being wrongfully detained when a business deal soured. In the documentary, Mr Jaubert said when he got

an email purportedly from Princess Latifa he worried Dubai security agents were trying to snare him. "I told her: 'Look, you are telling me you are the daughter of the ruler of

Dubai, maybe it's a trap and I need to check that you are authentic,'" he said. Once Mr Jaubert was convinced of Princess Latifa's identity, the pair wrote to each other

regularly. At times they would refine escape plans, or otherwise write as two penpals might confide in one another. In one email that Mr Jaubert reveals in the documentary, Princess Latifa

wrote: "I've been mistreated and oppressed all of my life". Reflecting on her father, ruler of Dubai and its tightly controlled state media,  Princess Latifa wrote that

"women are treated like subhumans. My father ... can't continue to do what he's been doing to us all." On the day of Princess Latifa's escape, she met with best

friend Tiina Juahiainen. Latifa secretly changed her clothes and the two women drove through the desert from Dubai and across the Oman border. There, the pair set off on a 40km journey by

inflatable boat and jet ski to meet the ex-French spy, Mr Jaubert. He was anchored in international waters on a yacht crewed by Filipino men. "The waves were about a metre and a half

and we had the wind pushing towards us so it took many hours before we got to the boat," Ms Jauhiainen told the _BCC_, describing the difficulties she and Latifa encountered on the

jetski and inflatable boat. Eight days into the princess's journey, as Mr Jaubert's escape yacht neared the Indian coastal city of Goa, the vessel was stormed by a brood of heavily

armed men who forced Latifa to return to her homeland. Princess Latifa is not the first of Sheikh Mohammed's daughters to try and escape. Her older sister, Sheikha Shamsa, then aged

19, was embroiled in an apparent attempt to flee Dubai in 2001. Princess Shamsa's friends claimed she was caught in the UK by her father's security staff and quickly flown back to

Dubai on one of her father's private jets. Born in 1948, Sheikh Mohammed is the third of four brothers who have inherited incredible wealth and power in the tiny oil rich Gulf emirate.

He is best known as the world's leading owner of racehorses through his Godolphin racing stables. Sheikh Mohammed owns the winner of the 2018 Melbourne Cup, Cross Counter. Sheikh

Mohammed's net worth has been estimated as high as $18 billion. Notoriously secretive, the UAE has remained tight-lipped on Princess Latifa's whereabouts and wellbeing since she

was captured on the boat.