Detained in Dubai
- Mar 24, 2018
- 4 min read

Mystery Drama On The High Seas: A Princess, A Spy And An Escape Plan Gone Wrong

Herve Jaubert poses inside one of his company's model submarines in Dubai on May 11, 2006. Pics/AFP

We wouldn't blame you for thinking this one is straight out of a 007 film. Former French spy and now USA native, Herve Jaubert, who had made a dramatic dash for freedom from Dubai back in 2008, has landed slap bang in the middle of another sensational international controversy.

Herve Jaubert in front of his company’s office in Dubai, on May 11, 2006

Rescuing damsels

Reports say that Herve was on a mission to rescue 33-year-old Sheikha Latifa, daughter of Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Saeed Al Maktoum, from Dubai by sea. In a video, Latifa has claimed she was being beaten and tortured and hence wanted to escape to the USA, to freedom. Herve had packed Latifa and her companion and capoeira (Brazilian martial art) instructor Tiina Johanna Juahiainen into a yacht, Nostromo, registered in the US, and was headed from the Dubai coast towards India. But, the yacht, cite reports, lost contact mid-sea.