A Brit has revealed how he became involved in a plot to aid the escape of a "runaway princess" from Dubai.
David Haigh says he was part of a 'rescue mission' for 33-year-old Sheikah Latifa Mohammed Al Maktoum, who claims to be one of 30 children of Dubai's ruler.
Sheikah Latifa reportedly fled the country to find asylum in America in March but the yacht she was travelling in was intercepted less than 50 miles from the coast of India and hasn't been seen or heard from since.
In a YouTube video, that the princess instructed was to be shared in the event of her death or disappearance, she spoke of her plan to escape.
Speaking to the camera, she announced: "I'm making this video because it could be the last video I make.
"Pretty soon I'm going to be leaving somehow I'm not sure of the outcome, but I'm 99% positive this could work."
She said it was "the start of me claiming my life, my freedom".
'Latifa was dragged away kicking and screaming for her life'
Five foreign nationals who were also travelling with Sheikah Latifa were allegedly beaten, kidnapped and then held in incommunicado detention in the UAE for around two weeks before they were released.
Former Leeds United MD Mr Haigh, originally from Sancreed, Cornwall, was previously incarcerated in a Middle East jail for 22 months where he claimed he was tortured.
Following his release he decided that he wanted to help others that have been in similar situations and became a partner in the organisation Detained in Dubai,which helps to raise awareness, provide support and legal aid to those jailed there.
Through the organisation, Haigh says that he was personally contacted by the Sheikah Latifa, who had emailed him to ask for help.
He said: "Essentially I was sitting in my little cottage in west Cornwall and I got a call from my business partner saying that I needed to check my emails.
"It literally read like those emails you get, the scam emails and I just thought 'this is nonsense' - but it was real."
When Mr Haigh realised that Latifa's plea could be true, he said that he set out on a mission to help.
He added: "We then got involved in, for want of another phrase, a rescue attempt of the princess from Dubai who wanted to leave her father. She wasn't happy.
"Behind the scenes here in Cornwall we were assisting her, and Herv , who was the captain of the boat she was travelling on."
Mr Haigh says he received a call from Sheikah Latifa just before she vanished.
He said: "We received a distress call from Latifa along the lines of 'I'm scared, there's gun shots, there's men outside'."
As soon as contact was lost, Haigh got to work, contacting all media and sharing the dramatic 40 minute video that Princess Latifa allegedly recorded and sent to Detained in Dubai.
He shared details of the people who were said to be with her at the time of the reported disappearance.
Tiina Jauhiainen, from Finland, was among those on the yacht when it was hi-jacked and had no choice but to watch her close friend Sheikah Latifa being dragged away "kicking and screaming for her life".
Ms Jauhiainen said she met the princess in 2010 when she was her personal trainer but it wasn't until six years later, that she opened up about her desire to leave Dubai and her previous attempts to escape.
Speaking at Truro Cathedral in Cornwall alongside Mr Haigh, Ms Jauhiainen said: "We were on the boat for eight days and I think after about five days, we were aware that we were being followed, we saw some planes circling above us.
"But of course we couldn't expect what really happened to us.
"It was basically commandos boarding the boat in the evening, at around 10pm at night.
"They had machine guns with laser sights and they threw hand grenades in the boat so we eventually had to come up from the cabin, from the lower deck because it was filled with smoke so we couldn't breathe any more - at that point there was blood on the floor, I didn't know what had happened because I didn't see any of the crew.
"They threw me on the floor and tied my hands behind my back and at that point me and Latifa were separated. They were threatening to shoot my brains out.
"I was taken to the outer deck and they were pushing me onto the railing of the boat and they were saying 'take your last breath, we will shoot your brains out'.
"Some time after, I don't really know how much time had passed but I was taken to the front of the boat and that's where I saw Latifa. She was basically repeatedly saying 'I'm seeking political asylum' and they were telling her to shut up or they were threating to shoot her as well."
Afterwards, Ms Jauhiainen said she was jailed in UAE, where she was interrogated and threatened with the death penalty.
She said she feared for her life and had no idea that people outside were working hard for her release.
She added: "The release was a big surprise because they literally told me that nobody knows you are here."
When she was finally let go, Ms Jauhiainen said she was warned not to tell anyone what had happened.
Also among the five to be detained was former French-American spy - 62-year-old Jean-Pierre Herv Jaubert, who has been in hiding in Cornwall ever since.
Mr Jaubert says he knew Sheikah Latifa for around eight years when she asked for his help, offering him £300,000 to help her escape.
He said he picked her up in his yacht on the coast of Oman, along with her best friend, Ms Jauhiainen.
After being at sea for a week, 50 miles from the coast of Goa, India, Jaubert claimed that the boat was boarded.
Mr Jaubert said: "There was nothing I could do. I was in the middle of the ocean with nowhere to go.
"There was a [group] of 15 men, all in black, helmets, laser sights, who stormed the boat."
He then claims that he and Jauhiainen were taken to Dubai where he says he was blindfolded and beaten.
Since his release, life in Cornwall has given Mr Jaubert the opportunity to try to recover from the harrowing experience and also campaign for the Sheikah Latifa's release with Mr Haigh, who was once himself jailed in Dubai.
Once news started to spread Mr Jaubert and Ms Jauhiainen, along with three other unnamed people who were on the boat at the time, were released.
Now Mr Haigh and his detained in Dubai business partner Radha Stirling say they are continuing to fight for the princess' freedom.
Through their persistence in gaining publicity for the Free Latifa campaign, the group has gained the backing of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the United Nations.
The campaigners also run a petition, calling for the release of the princess which has been signed over 5,000 times.
The governments involved have been contacted but are yet to respond.