Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, has been ordered by the London High Court to pay a British record sum of more than 554 million pounds ($733 million) to resolve a custody dispute with his ex-wife over their two children. The majority of the enormous judgement to Princess Haya bint al-Hussein, Jordan's King Abdullah's half-sister, and the couple's two children is intended to secure their lifelong security, including addressing the "severe danger" presented to them by the sheikh himself, the judge, Philip Moor, said.

"She is not seeking an award for herself other than for security," the court said, adding that she is seeking compensation for the assets she lost during the marriage split.

He instructed Mohammed to make a one-time payment of 251.5 million pounds to Haya within three months for the care of her British mansions, to reimburse money Haya claimed she owed for jewellery and racehorses, and to cover future security expenditures. Additionally, the sheikh, who serves as vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, was instructed to contribute 3 million pounds to the education of Jalila, 14, and Zayed, 9, as well as 9.6 million pounds in arrears. Additionally, he was required to pay 11.2 million pounds each year for the children's upkeep and protection as adults.
"I really want liberation, and I desire liberation for them," she said in court.

The multimillion-dollar financial settlement is the latest chapter in a judicial odyssey that started when the princess fled to Britain in April 2019, fearful for her safety after an affair with one of her bodyguards and a month after she requested a divorce from the sheikh.

Later that year, a London court determined that Mohammed had waged a campaign of threats and intimidation against her, instilling dread in her, and had previously stolen and tortured two of his kids from another marriage.

Earlier this year, the President of the Family Division in England and Wales, a senior judge, decided that Mohammed had also directed the hacking of Haya's and her attorneys' phones, one of whom is a parliamentary legislator. Haya had made no formal request for divorce. She did not provide a reason, but her attorneys said that as the ex-wife of one of the world's wealthiest men, she would have been entitled to demand billions.

"The mother's pecuniary claims, and the magnitude of the remedy sought, are very unusual," the sheikh's lawyer, Nigel Dyer, told the court during closed-door sessions on Monday.

He said that her demands were exorbitant and that she was actually demanding for herself via her children. He also accused the princess of squandering the children's cash, alleging that she paid 6.7 million pounds to blackmailers who worked for her security staff in order to keep an affair hidden.

The suspected blackmailers did not appear in court. Haya said that she drained funds from her children's accounts out of fear.

THE COURT FIGHT OVER 70 MILLION POUNDS

Haya's lawyer, Nicholas Cusworth, said that legal expenses had exceeded 70 million pounds over the course of two and a half years, adding that "the actual scope of (Mohammed's) huge expenditures will never be revealed."

According to settlement documents, the majority of Haya's cash compensation would be spent on security. This was to protect the children against their own father's abduction, the judgement said, and included funds for a fleet of armoured vehicles that would be renewed every few years.

Moor said that Haya and her children need the substantial protection both against the sheikh and due to their royal rank. "Uniquely, the primary danger they confront comes from (the sheikh), not from outside sources," Moor said.

"There will always be a clear and present danger to (Haya) for the duration of her life, whether from (Mohammed) or the average terrorist," he stated, alluding to the security dangers posed by someone in Haya's position.

Haya's head of security - known only as 'Director 1' - had to be brought into the courtroom to testify about her security demands, with the windows darkened out, the room sealed off except for Moor and two attorneys, and his name written on a scrap of paper and given to the judge.

MONEY WITHOUT END

Haya's attorneys said before the court that the money accessible to the princess and her children in Dubai was "limitless," with access to more than a dozen opulent houses, a 400 million pound boat, and a fleet of private jets. The verdict said that she had an annual household budget of over 83 million pounds in Dubai, with an additional 9 million pounds in spending money. Mohammed's counsel admitted in court that he was capable of raising 1.25 billion pounds in cash within three months.

"I remind myself that money was not an issue throughout the marriage," Moor said in allowing Haya's claim for 1.9 million pounds to spend on a kitchen expansion, pizza oven, and kitchen curtains at her London property.

Moor said that he would not grant Haya's financial claims "carte blanche," but would assess them "with an acute awareness of the extraordinary circumstances of this case, such as the extremely sumptuous and unmatched style of life enjoyed by these parties in Dubai." Haya testified that she did not want millions to cover the costs of five housekeepers, clothes, the maintenance of her two residences, the largest of which is reported to be worth over 100 million pounds, and frequent vacations.

Her jewellery, which is estimated to be worth around 20 million pounds in total, she said, would cover the courtroom if spread out.

Moor ordered Mohammed to pay her 1 million pounds for missing haute couture clothing she claimed had vanished, as well as 5 million to fund her and family members' annual vacations of nine weeks.

"In the context of this case, she is not affluent," Cusworth, her attorney, said. According to the judgement, she was compelled to liquidate 15.6 million pounds worth of assets – including ten million-pound horses and 2.1 million pounds worth of jewellery – in order to make ends meet while awaiting the final payment.

He said that her claims should be seen in light of Mohammed's two-million-pound expenditure for strawberries purchased for his country house northeast of London one summer.

However, Dyer, the sheikh's lawyer, labelled a number of Haya's statements as "absurd" or "stupid," and argued that they contradicted her professed wish for her children to have a normal life.

He said that the judge's decision was almost definitely "the greatest pecuniary remedy award ever awarded and, I believe, ever made by a family court."

The previous record for the biggest payment ever awarded by a British court is 453.6 million pounds, which Russian billionaire Farkad Akhmedov was compelled to pay in 2016 as part of his divorce settlement. Mohammed, 72, had volunteered to make annual maintenance payments of ten million pounds and a 500 million pound guarantee, which Dyer described as "hanging over his head and that of his family like a sword of Damocles."

Moor concluded by stating that he believed Haya's testimony was "palpably honest."

According to Cusworth, the princess's lawyer, "the true value of money is very different for Mohammed than it is for any other mortal interested in this case or for any litigant who typically appears before this court."