Ex-wife of Dubai ruler’s nephew Zeynab Javadli goes missing in Dubai

Zeynab Javadli, the former wife of a nephew of Dubai’s ruler, has vanished alongside her three young daughters. A British human rights lawyer and close friends raised the alarm after losing all contact with her on Tuesday night. Her home in Dubai has since been found locked, empty, and with the locks entirely changed.

Javadli, a former international gymnast from Azerbaijan, divorced Sheikh Saeed bin Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum in 2019. Since then, she has been locked in a bitter, multi-year custody battle. Fearing for her safety, Javadli had barely left her home for months, terrified that security forces would raid the property to take her children and place her under arrest. Her fears intensified last year when her ex-husband filed a police complaint accusing her of kidnapping their daughters, leading Javadli to livestream a high-stakes standoff with authorities in a desperate plea for global help, News.Az reports, citing BBC.

The tense situation escalated further as Dubai authorities threatened her with arrest over "e-crimes" related to that livestream. While her ex-husband’s legal team has repeatedly attacked her character in custody hearings, claiming she was an unfit mother, Javadli's Emirati defense team has aggressively denied the allegations in court.

With her mother arriving in Dubai only to find her daughter's home cleared out, local police and the Azerbaijani consulate have been notified. Activists state the disappearance bears a chilling resemblance to the 2018 case of Princess Latifa, the daughter of Dubai's ruler, who was forcibly captured and returned after attempting to flee the country. The international community is now being urged to demand immediate confirmation of Javadli's safety and current whereabouts.

News.Az 

By Aysel Mammadzada