The United Kingdom High Court on Tuesday ordered United Arab Emirates Prime Minister and Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum to pay £550 million (nearly Rs 5,515 crore) to his former wife and their children in a divorce settlement, reported AP.

This is reportedly one of the biggest divorce case settlement in British history.

Judge Philip Moor said Al-Maktoum must pay £251.5 million (about Rs 2,522 crore) to his sixth wife, Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, and make payments of £5.6 million (around Rs 56 crore) each year to their children – 14-year-old Al Jalila and 9-year-old Zayed, secured with a £290 million (nearly Rs 2,908 crore) guarantee.

The money the children receive could be more or less than the guarantee amount of £290 million pounds as it depends on several factors, including how long they live and whether they reconcile with their father.

The settlement also includes £11 million (about Rs 110 crore) a year to cover security costs for Princess Haya and the children till they remain minors.

Haya, the daughter of Jordan’s former King Hussein, had fled from Dubai to Britain with her children in 2019, reported BBC. Haya had said that she was in fear of her life after finding out that Al-Maktoum had previously abducted two of his other daughters – Sheikha Shamsa and Sheikha Latifa – and brought them back to Dubai against their will.

The 72-year-old Sheikh had denied the abduction charges. A separate High Court ruling this year, however, had said that the allegations were “in all probability, true”.

The Dubai ruler had also published a poem titled You lived, You Died, which Haya described as threatening after Al-Maktoum discovered that she was having an affair with one of her bodyguards.

She claimed that after moving to Britain she had received messages saying “we can reach you anywhere”.

In another verdict, the family division of the High Court had ruled earlier this year that Al-Maktoum had hacked the mobile phones of Haya, her bodyguards and her legal team. The phones were hacked using Israeli firm NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware. The sheikh had denied the allegations.

In the divorce judgment, Justice Moor observed that Haya and her children were particularly vulnerable. The judge said they needed “watertight security” to ensure that they are safe in the UK. The main threat they faced was not from outside sources, he said, but from their father, a man who had access to the “full weight of the state”.

“There is a clear and ever-present risk to these children that is almost certain to persist until they obtain their independence,” he said.

On Haya, he added: “There will remain a clear and ever-present risk for the remainder of her life, whether it be from [Al-Maktoum], or just from the normal terrorist and other threats.”.