Ex-wife of Dubai ruler's nephew arrested in custody dispute
The ex-wife of a nephew of Dubaiโs ruler has been arrested following a long-running custody battle, prosecutors in the UAE said on Friday. Zeynab Javadli was detained after her former husband, Sheikh Saeed bin Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, accused her of abducting their three children. โDubai Public Prosecution confirms that Ms. Zeynab Javadli has been taken into custody, following a complaint filed by the father of her three children alleging that she abducted the children during a court-approved visitation session,โ said a statement sent to AFP. โThe matter remains under investigation and is subject to ongoing legal proceedings.โ Since late 2025 Javadli, a former international gymnast from Azerbaijan, has posted several Instagram posts with her daughters, in which she pleads for help and accuses her ex-husband of taking them away. But a lawyer for Sheikh Saeed, a nephew of Dubaiโs ruler and United Arab Emirates Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, said he was awarded custody of the three girls in 2022. The decision was upheld on appeal and later confirmed by the Dubai Court of Cassation, Sheikh Saeedโs lawyer Mahmood Hussain said in a statement sent to AFP. โDespite these rulings, Ms. Javadli abducted the three children during a court-approved temporary visitation session in 2025,โ the statement said. โShe subsequently published a series of videos on social media containing defamatory allegations against the childrenโs father, which exposed the children to public scrutiny and emotional strain. โConsequently, the father, my client, was compelled to file a legal complaint against Ms. Javadli for abducting the children.โ David Haigh, Javadliโs British-based human rights lawyer, said the children, the eldest of whom is nine, had lived with their mother โtheir entire livesโ. He said Sheikh Mohammed โpersonally intervenedโ in 2022 to give her full custody, without providing evidence. The alleged abduction took place in November, he added, questioning why she was only arrested months later. โWe call upon the UAE authorities to grant Zeynab immediate access to legal representation. We call upon the Azerbaijani government to secure immediate consular access,โ Haigh said in a statement. โAbove all, we are calling on the UAE to release Zeynab immediately to her home in Dubai and to reunite her with her children,โ he added. According to reports, the couple divorced in 2019 and in 2022 Javadli appealed to the United Nations Human Rights Council to intervene in the custody dispute.