You've Been Hacked: How Dubai Ruler Eavesdropped On Ex-Wife

Cherie Blair believed her phone may have been hacked along with that of her client, Jordanian Princess Haya bint al-Hussein. Investigations point to Dubai ruler Sheikh Muhammad bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the princess's ex-husband.

In August last year, Fiona Shackleton, one of Britain's most prominent divorce lawyers, received an urgent late-night phone call from Cherie Blair, wife of the former UK prime minister Tony Blair.

Blair who is a top human rights lawyer, told Shackleton that her phone may have been hacked along with that of her client, Jordanian Princess Haya bint al-Hussein. In subsequent conversations, the two women believed there was only one explanation: Shackleton was Haya's lawyer in her bitter London custody case with her ex-husband, Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, and he was behind the hacking, court rulings show.

On Wednesday, the rulings by a senior British judge that the sheikh had hacked his ex-wife's phones as well as those of her lawyers and security team were published after reporting restrictions were lifted. A reconstruction of how the hacking was uncovered - based on expert testimony initially given in private and hundreds of pages of court documents - offers a rare account of an operation which would normally be shrouded in secrecy.

According to the documents, late at night on Aug 5 last year, Blair, who had been hired as an external adviser by the Israeli security group NSO, sent an email to Shackleton to say there was an "urgent need to speak with you tonight" and it "doesn't matter how late". Blair appeared "incredibly anxious", Shackleton's witness statement to the court said.