Yesterday, we released a handwritten letter from Princess Latifa, addressed to U.K. police in Cambridgeshire, from where Latifa’s elder sister, Shamsa was kidnapped in 2000.

In the letter, Princess Latifa, the captive daughter of Dubai's ruler, has appealed to UK police to re-investigate the kidnap of her older sister from a Cambridge street more than 20 years ago.

Shamsa, who was just 18 then and is now 39, has not been seen in public since.

A High Court judge ruled in 2019, that Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum had abducted both daughters and held them against their will.

"All I ask of you", writes Latifa, "is to please give attention on her case because it could get her her freedom... your help and attention on her case could free her."

She adds: "She has strong links to England… she really loves England, all of her fondest memories are of her time there."

Latifa dated the letter February 2018, before her escape attempt, to avoid revealing that she had a way of communicating with the outside world from captivity. It paints a chilling picture of her sister's fate after she was returned to Dubai.

”She was kept incommunicado with no release date, trial or charge. She was tortured by getting her feet caned..."

Cambridgeshire police first launched a kidnap investigation in 2001 after Shamsa made contact via an immigration lawyer. But the investigation eventually hit a dead end when officers were blocked from going to Dubai.

It later emerged that aides acting for the sheikh had made representations to the Foreign Office around the time of the investigation.

Police reviewed the investigation in 2018, and BBC News has been able to reveal that one investigator acknowledged there were "significant sensitivities" with the case.

A further review was launched after the High Court judgment was published in 2020.

In a statement to BBC News, Cambridgeshire Police said it had received Latifa's letter, which "will be looked at as part of the ongoing review".