A six-year-old old newspaper clipping claiming that a Qatari princess was caught in an orgy with seven men is fake. The clipping has been revived and falsely shared by right-wing accounts in the backdrop of Qatar and other Arab countries condemning two BJP spokespersons for making remarks against Prophet Mohammed.
BOOM found that this claim is false and no such news was published by Financial Times. Additionally the fake clipping also uses the photo of a Dubai businesswoman and not the photo of the princess of Qatar.
Several Arab countries including Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia registered their protests with the Indian government over remarks made by BJP members Nupur Sharma and Naveen Kumar Jindal against the Prophet Mohammed. Following heavy backlash, the BJP distanced themselves from the comments and also expelled Jindal and suspended Sharma from the party.
The fake newspaper clipping carries a photo of a Muslim woman with the headline, "Qatari Princess caught in Orgy with 7 men".
The clipping is being shared with the caption claiming that the royal family of Qatar paid 50 crores to suppress the alleged story.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the newspaper clipping is fake and has been viral since 2016. We did not find any article published by Financial Times reporting that Qatari Princess Sheikha Salwa was caught in an orgy with seven men.
Additionally, the woman in the photo used in the newspaper clipping is Alia Al Mazrouei, Chief Operating Officer of Dubai-based Al Mazrui Holdings.
BOOM Hindi had previously fact-checked the same newspaper clipping in April 2020 when it was being shared and published by several Indian media outlets.
When we searched with the headline of the newspaper clipping and ran a selected keyword search, we found several fact-checks contradicting the viral claim. We also checked the website of Financial Times and did not find any such report that had been published.
We found that the Financial Times in August 2016 denied publishing any such article on Qatari Princess Sheikha Salwa being caught in an orgy with seven men.
Michael Lindsay, Editorial Assistant, Newsroom of Financial Times in August 2016 gave a quote to the Mumbai daily Afternoon Voice saying, "We understand that the article mentioned by you was originally published on www.awdnews.com, which is not our website. The Financial Times is not responsible for false article 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."
Photo of Dubai Business woman misidentified as Qatari Princess Sheikha Salwa
A reverse image search on the photo of the woman used in the newspaper clipping showed search results with the photo of Alia Al Mazrouei, Chief Operating Officer of Dubai-based Al Mazrui Holdings.
On comparing the viral photo and the photo of Mazrouei, we found that both match, showing that she is being falsely misidentified as Qatari Princess Sheikha Salwa. The photo below matches with the viral photo used in the newspaper clipping.