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Dubai Ruler Sheikh Mohammed Hacked Wife’s Phone With Pegasus Spyware, London Court Finds

Sheikh Mohammed used controversial tech from Israel’s NSO Group to download data from his wife’s phone during divorce proceedings.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, hacked the phone of his ex-wife Princess Haya, with whom he was involved in a long-running custody battle, using the controversial Israeli Pegasus spyware from NSO Group, a London court ruled Wednesday. The judgment, which was written in May but only released today because of a series of failed appeals by al-Maktoum, said the surveillance occurred “with the express or implied authority” of the sheikh. The presiding judge wrote: “The findings represent a total abuse of trust, and indeed an abuse of power, to a significant extent.” The court heard that Haya’s phone was repeatedly hacked as divorce proceedings were ongoing. Two of her lawyers’ phones were also hacked. In one submission, Princess Haya said: “It feels as if I am being stalked… It is hugely oppressive… I feel like I cannot breathe any more; it feels like being suffocated. I don’t want the children to live with the kind of fear that punctuates my existence at all times. They do not deserve this.” London courts have previously found al-Maktoum, who is also prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, a key British ally in the Middle East, guilty of organizing the abductions of two of his other children, Princess Latifa and Princess Shamsa.