Authors
Vaibhav is a part of Newschecker’s English team, where he spots and debunks all kinds of misinformation, making the rounds on the internet. A Journalism graduate from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, he holds an M.A degree in Philosophy and an M.Phil from Delhi University.
Amid the ongoing controversy over comments made by now-suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma on Prophet Muhammad, a newspaper clipping of a Financial Times article with the headline ‘Qatari princess caught in an orgy with 7 men’ is going viral on social media. Users who shared the post claimed that Princess Sheikha Salwa of Qatar was found in a compromising position with 7 other men in a London Hotel and the Qatari Embassy offered a hefty price of 50 million dollars to quell this story. Newschecker found these claims to be untrue and no such news published by Financial Times.
Facebook user Satish Bitla is among the many users who shared the claim on the social media platform.
Newschecker found similar claims on Facebook with Hindi captions.
Fact Check /Verification
To verify the authenticity of the claim, Newschecker began by conducting keyword search of the words ‘Qatari princess caught in an orgy with 7 men’ on Google and found no report published by Financial Times.
Newschecker also found an article by AWD News published on 14th August, 2016 titled ‘Qatari Princess Shaikha Salwa’s Sexual Scandal With Seven Men’ which has since been deleted from their website. The article named Financial Times as their primary source.
The archived version of the article can be seen here.
Upon further investigation Newschecker found an article by Mumbai daily Afternoon Voice on 25th August, 2016 according to which Financial Times had denied publishing any such story. According to the article, Michael Lindsay, Editorial Assistant, Newsroom of Financial Times gave a clarification saying ” The Financial Times is not responsible for false articles published by AWD. Further, it is not the case that the Financial Times has published any such news report, or been involved in any such events, as are mentioned in AWD’s false article.”
Upon further investigation, Newschecker found a tweet by the official account of Twitter user @Lobnene_Blog who is a Social and political activist who works for Al Araby TV network. According to the tweet, the woman in the news clipping is not Qatari princess Sheikha Salwa but rather Alia Al Mazrouei, COO of Dubai based Mazrui Holdings and profiled by Forbes.
On comparing the viral photo and the photo of Mazrouei, we found them to be a match, proving that she was being falsely misidentified as Qatari Princess Sheikha Salwa.
Newschecker also found the same image used in the viral social media post on a website called www.thosewhoinspire.com . According to the website, the woman in question is Alia Al Mazrouei who is the Chief Operating Officer of Mazrui Holdings and the co-founder Just Falafel.
Newschecker also found the image of the same woman featured on the website of the Abu Dhabi School of Management, where she is a Board Member.
The claim had earlier gone viral in 2016 and after that in 2020 and was fact checked by many media houses, including the Urdu team of Newschecker. You can read the Urdu article here.
Conclusion
Newchecker’s investigation reveals that the viral news clip claiming that Qatari princess Sheikha Salwa was involved in a sex scandal with 7 other men is false and the image used in the news clipping is not of Sheikha Salwa but rather Alia Al Mazourei who is a business woman based out of Dubai.
Result: Fabricated Content/ False
Our Sources
Afternoon Voice report, Social media exposed mainstream media, (15th August, 2016)
Tweet by Ahmad M. Yassine (28th August, 2016)
Official website of Those Who Inspire
Official website of Abu Dhabi School of Management
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Authors
Vaibhav is a part of Newschecker’s English team, where he spots and debunks all kinds of misinformation, making the rounds on the internet. A Journalism graduate from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, he holds an M.A degree in Philosophy and an M.Phil from Delhi University.
