Mary Robinson, the former UN high commissioner for human rights, has come under fire for claiming that an Emirati princess campaigners say is being held against her will is “in the loving care of her family”.

The former Irish president made the comments after the 33-year-old’s family released pictures showing her in Dubai with Robinson, claiming they rebut allegations that she was taken home against her will.

Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed al-Maktoum, a daughter of Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, had not been heard from since she was seized from a yacht off the coast of India in March.

In a video that she instructed friends to release in case an attempt to escape Dubai went wrong, Latifa said she spent seven years trying to flee a gilded prison and feared torture if captured.

Robinson faced intensive criticism on Thursday from rights campaigners, with one alleging she had been “used as a willing pawn in the PR battle between the UAE ruling family and the rest of the world”.

There was also a sceptical reaction from Human Rights Watch (HRW), which was name-checked during a BBC interview on Thursday with Robinson, who said she had been asked by Princess Hayat, one of the Sheikh’s wives and someone she had known for a long time, to come to Dubai to help with a “family dilemma”.

Robinson said the princess was receiving psychiatric care. Photograph: AP

“The dilemma was that Latifa is vulnerable, she’s troubled. She made a video that she now regrets and she planned an escape, or was part of a plan of escape,” said Robinson, who told how she had lunch with Latifa, Hayat and others and was able to “assess the situation”.

Robinson said the princess was receiving psychiatric care, adding: “She’s a very likeable young woman but clearly troubled, clearly needs the medical care that she’s receiving.” She said the family “did not want her to endure any more publicity”.

Robinson said she had sent a report on the matter to Michelle Bachelet, the current UN high commissioner for human rights, and had spoken with Bachelet’s predecessor the Jordanian royal Zeid bin Ra’ad al-Hussein.

“These are good friends of mine and we discussed the case,” said Robinson, who said she had been in touch with Ken Roth, the executive director of HRW.

Roth said he had an email correspondence with Robinson after he learned she had visited Princess Latifa. He sent her a link to reporting on the case by HRW, which has documented numerous incidents of enforced disappearances by UAE authorities.

“Mary Robinson said in the BBC interview that Princess Latifa is ‘a troubled young woman’, though I would be troubled too if I had tried to escape a gilded prison and was kidnapped back into it,” said Roth.

“I’m not sure that Mary Robinson during such a short visit would be capable of discerning the difference. A brief interview in the presence of the family that allegedly kidnapped her, after who knows what treatment she had been subjected to during the past nine months of incommunicado detention, is no way to find out.”

Roth said HRW would welcome the opportunity to speak about the case with Princess Latifa as well as with UAE government officials.

Radha Stirling, the chief executive of the Detained in Dubai group, said listeners to the interview with Robinson would have been “astonished at the extent to which Ms Robinson appeared to be reciting almost verbatim from Dubai’s script”.

Lawyers instructed by two people who were on the yacht when it was seized also challenged the account given by Robinson, accusing her of “brushing over” credible allegations about unlawful attacks and abductions in international waters.

“Mrs Robinson appears to have spent a couple of hours with Sheikha Latifa, and despite having no formal medical or psychiatric training, has somehow diagnosed her condition and concluded that she is receiving appropriate treatment. It is unclear on what basis Mrs Robinson considers herself qualified to do so,” said Guernica 37 International Justice Chambers.

Aisha Ali-Khan, a UK-based rights campaigner, also criticised Robinson, saying: “It seems clear to me that Robinson has been used as a willing pawn in the PR battle between the UAE ruling family and the rest of the world.”

Robinson’s Dublin-based foundation was approached with a request for comment.