Super-rich divorcing wife, 36, wins jail order against her ‘highly controlling’ Omani tycoon ex in bitter battle over his £300m fortune

• Leila Hammoud, 36, is in a protracted legal battle with her wealthy Omani ex
• Talal Al Zawawi, 48, is said to be worth £300m after inheriting a slice of his family’s diverse business interests
• Ms Hammoud was awarded £25m but Al Zawawi has threatened not to pay it
• He banned his driver from chauffeuring his ex unless their children are present

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Leila Hammoud, 36, is in a protracted legal battle with her wealthy Omani ex, Talal Al Zawawi, 48

A wealthy wife locked in a bitter divorce fight has succeeded in having her husband, said to be worth £300m, face the prospect of jail after he failed to turn over financial information to her lawyers.

Leila Hammoud, 36, is in a protracted legal battle with her wealthy Omani ex, Talal Al Zawawi, 48.

She has already received a court award granting her £25m of his fortune but he has threatened not to pay it.

Ms Hammoud, who moved to London from the ‘palace’ in Muscat, Oman, that she shared with Mr Al Zawawi after they split in 2017, has spent hundreds of thousands of pounds fighting her ex in ‘litigation of the utmost intensity’.

She wanted £50m from Mr Al Zawawi, whom a judge found owns a £300m slice of a family group of companies valued at over £2 billion, and whom his wife claims personally earns ‘about £3.7m’ a year.

Now Mr Justice Williams in the family division of the High Court has imposed a three-month jail sentence on the husband for failing to obey an order to let his wife’s lawyers have information about his finances.

The court heard Ms Hammoud say at an earlier hearing she had shared a ‘palace’ in Muscat with Mr Al Zawawi, as well as having a home in London and enjoying an opulent lifestyle during their 12-year marriage.

Leila Hammoud and Talal Al Zawawi married when she was 24 and he 36. He is worth £300m. she said they shared a ‘palace’ in Oman and now wants £50m from the businessman

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Mr Al Zawawi owned 15 per cent of the Zawawi Group, worth around £300

Mr Al Zawawi owned 15 per cent of the Zawawi Group, which controls a huge portfolio of businesses including banking, construction and tourism.

He inherited his share from his late father, politician and businessman Qais Bin Abdulmunim Al Zawawi, and it was worth around £300m, divorce judge Mr Justice Holman found.

Mr Al Zawawi has already obtained an Omani divorce from Ms Hammoud.

But she continued to fight on for a payout in London after saying that she would get no financial provision under Omani law.

And last month, Mr Justice Holman awarded her £25m, including more than £5m for a house and £75,000 for a car.

Mr Al Zawawi had claimed that his fortune was around £34m and consisted of assets that were ‘illiquid and unrealisable’.

Lawyers representing Ms Hammoud had asked the judge to impose an asset-freezing order. They said Mr Al Zawawi had not complied with earlier orders and suggested that he would not pay the £25 million.

Leila Hammoud has already obtained an Omani divorce but she continued to fight on for a payout in London after saying that she would get no financial provision under Omani law

The award came after Mr Justice Holman had slammed Mr Al Zawawi for his ‘highly controlling behaviour’ towards his ex, despite them being over 3,500 miles apart.

The judge criticised the husband for having instructed Ms Hammoud’s chauffeur in London ‘not to drive the wife anywhere alone in the car, unless she has the children with her and so it is a journey for the purpose and benefit of the children’.

‘It is the husband who pays the salary of the driver,’ the judge explained.

‘This, frankly, is highly controlling and in my view demeaning of the status of a recently divorced wife and mother of the children,’ he continued, adding that he found the situation ‘frankly absurd’.

‘This of course has been the historical pattern in this family. They do not drive themselves,’ the judge noted.

Mr Al Zawawi said he banned the wife from taking solo trips in the chauffeur-driven car because of ‘a tendency of the wife to smoke or vape in the cars in the presence of the drivers if the children are not there’.

Mr Justice Holman went on to order that the husband must give money for the cars and chauffeurs to the wife so she could pay for them herself and be in direct control of her own transport.

‘It is frankly preposterous to suggest that there should be some provision to the effect that she can only be driven alone in the car provided it does not take priority over the children,’ he said.

The judge ruled it was ‘preposterous’ and ‘controlling’ that the husband should control how his driver paid with his money uses his car to ferry his ex-wife (pictured) around London, since their divorce

‘It is for her to make decisions as to the division of the driver’s time between her reasonable needs and the reasonable needs of the children,’ he added.

The judge also commented that the situation with the cars ‘illustrates the objectively petty position this family and these parties have got themselves into’.

Mr Al Zawawi now faces jail for contempt of court after failing to comply with an order made last May to hand over vital financial documents to his Lebanese ex-wife’s lawyers.

He was given a suspended sentence last month, which he has now breached, said Mr Justice Williams.

‘A prison sentence of three months, suspended for seven days was imposed,’ he said.

‘The husband had failed to follow the order of Mr Justice Holman of 1 May 2018, requiring him to file, by 4pm May 15 2018, documents relating to the application for financial remedies.

‘Mr Al Zawawi failed to file the required documents by 15 May 2018.

‘He has (still) not filed or served the documents. I am satisfied that Mr Al Zawawi has failed to comply with the terms of the suspension and thus that the suspended sentence should now be implemented.

‘I will now issue a warrant for the committal to prison of Mr Al Zawawi for three months from the date of his arrest,’ the judge concluded.

Mr Al Zawawi is in Oman, but will be liable to be arrested and jailed should he set foot in the UK.

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