BEIRUT, Lebanon — A court in Britain has found that Dubai’s ruler kidnapped and confined two grown daughters, then threatened one of his many wives when she began to question his treatment of them, according to British court documents released on Thursday.

The ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, has been under scrutiny since allegations emerged in late 2018 that the daughters, Sheikha Latifa Mohammed al-Maktoum and Sheikha Shamsa al-Maktoum, had each tried to escape their restricted lives, only to be abducted and returned to house arrest in Dubai, the gleaming financial hub of the United Arab Emirates. The wife who said she had been threatened, Princess Haya of Jordan, fled months later with her two young children to Britain.

None of the allegations had been proven or legally adjudicated until now, after Princess Haya raised them before Britain’s high court in a child custody case against her husband. Sheikh Mohammed is unlikely to face legal consequences. But the stark descriptions of how the sheikh wielded his wealth and absolute power against his own family may prove hard to shake.