Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Associated Press
–
A UAE court has sentenced three people to death for the murder of ZVI Kogan in Israeli Mordevan, state media reported Monday.
The state-run WAM news agency has announced a verdict for the three after its trial in the Federal Court of Appeals for Abu Dhabi. The fourth person who helped kill him said he received a life sentence.
We did not identify what was charged. However, three Uzbek nationals were arrested in Türkiye and brought back to the UAE over the November killing.
“The defendant pursued and killed the victim,” the WAM report said. “The evidence presented to the court by national security prosecution included detailed confessions of the defendant on the crime of murder and temptation, as well as details of the forensic reports, post-mortem review results, and the measures used in the testimony of the crime and witnesses.”
Authorities in the United Arab Emirates have neither provided any motives for the killing nor details on how Kogan was lured and killed. But it came amid the Israeli Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. The Gaza Strip inflamed anger in the wider Muslim world.
Diplomatic ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates remain intact, although tensions have been caused by the war as Israel maintains its consulate in Dubai and the embassy in Abu Dhabi.
Although they have not directly criticized Iran, Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have mentioned the “axis of evil” that is responsible for the murder of Kogan.
The Iranian embassy in Abu Dhabi has denied that Tehran is involved in the murder of the rabbis and that the United Arab Emirates itself has not filed any claims. However, Western officials believe Iran runs intelligence reporting in the UAE and holds tabs for hundreds of thousands of Iranians living across the country.
Iran’s intelligence agency is also carrying out past invitations in the UAE. Iran has also used criminal gangs in the past to target dissidents and their enemies.
Ultra-Orthodox rabbis, Kogan, 28, has been running a kosher grocery store in Dubai’s future city since the two countries formed diplomatic relations in the 2020 Abraham Union. The United Arab Emirates has a rapidly growing Jewish community, with synagogues and businesses serving kosher diners.
Kogan was an envoy of the Chabadrubavich movement, a well-known and highly observant branch of ultra-Orthodox Jewish religion based around Crown Heights in New York City’s Crown Heights area. He was buried in Israel.
The United Arab Emirates is an authoritarian federation of seven Sheikh dams on the Arabian Peninsula and is home to Abu Dhabi. Capital cases are rare in countries with 9 million people, but executions are usually carried out promptly after the accused appeal. Usually, the UAE uses fire squads to perform what is accused.