UAE arrests three Uzbek nationals for murder of Israeli-Moldovan rabbi

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United Arab Emirates said Monday that police have arrested three Uzbek nationals for the murder of an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi, an attack that has raised concerns among the country’s fast-growing Israeli community.

The statement from the country’s Interior Ministry offered no motive for Zvi Kogan’s killing, although an Israeli Foreign Ministry official later told The Associated Press that he was simply “killed because of who he was.”

Kogan, 28, an ultra-Orthodox rabbi who went missing on Thursday, ran a kosher supermarket in the futuristic city of Dubai, where Israelis have converged for trade and tourism since the two countries came together. diplomatic ties forged in the 2020 Abraham Accords.

The agreement has endured more than a year of rising regional tensions Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel. But Israel’s devastating retaliatory offensive in Gaza and invasion of Lebanon, after months of fighting with the militant group Hezbollah, have fueled anger among Emiratis, Arab nationals and others living in the UAE.

The Interior Ministry statement identified the three men as Olimboy Tohirovich, 28, Makhmudjon Abdurakhim, 28, and Azizbek Kamilovich, 33. State news agency WAM had images of the three men, blindfolds covering their faces in prison uniforms and slippers .

The preliminary investigation into the men is “in preparation for referring them to the public prosecutor’s office for further investigation,” the Interior Ministry said.

It was not immediately clear whether the three men had lawyers or had sought consular assistance in the UAE, an autocratically ruled nation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula. The Uzbek consulate in Dubai did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the arrests.

Israeli media reports, citing unnamed security officials, claimed that Uzbeks were involved in Kogan’s killing. Uzbeks and other transnational criminal gangs have previously been enlisted in Iranian plots against dissidents and others.

Iran, which backs Hamas and Hezbollah, has also subsequently threatened reprisals against Israel a wave of airstrikes carried out by Israel in October in response to an Iranian ballistic missile attack. The Iranian embassy in Abu Dhabi has denied that Tehran was involved in the rabbi’s killing.

Although the UAE statement did not mention Iran, Iranian intelligence services have carried out kidnappings in the UAE in the past.

Western officials believe Iran is conducting intelligence operations in the UAE and monitoring the hundreds of thousands of Iranians living across the country.

Iran is suspected of kidnapping and later killing British Iranian national Abbas Yazdi in Dubai in 2013. Iran also kidnapped Iranian German national Jamshid Sharmahd from Dubai in 2020 and returned him to Tehran. where he was executed in October.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also made a passing reference to Iran in his comments on Kogan’s killing.

“I greatly appreciate the UAE’s cooperation in investigating the murder,” he said. “We will strengthen the ties between us in the face of attempts by the Axis of Evil to damage the peace relationship between us.”

Rimon Market, a kosher supermarket Kogan managed on Dubai’s busy Al Wasl Road, was closed on Sunday. As wars roiled the region, the store was the target of online protests by supporters of the Palestinians. Mezuzahs on the front and back doors of the market appeared to have been ripped off.

Kogan’s body was flown back to Israel on Monday, ahead of a planned funeral the next day.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry official, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation and diplomatic matters, said authorities believe Kogan’s death arose from his identity as an ultra-Orthodox Jew, and not from something else.

“He was attacked because of who he was,” the official said.

Israelis and Jews in the UAE have been on edge since the October 7 attacks. Worship, which typically requires 10 Jewish men, is still taking place, but not at locations previously used by the community, the official said.

The official acknowledged that tensions are likely boiling beneath the surface in the UAE, but praised the Emirati government for its investigation into Kogan’s murder. Israeli security services are involved in the investigation, the official said. This probably includes Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence service.

While the UAE strongly criticizes the behavior of the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip, it has maintained diplomatic relations with Israel. Israeli diplomats have also returned to Bahrain, the official said.

“They may not agree with what we are doing in the war… but dialogue allows them to send in all the humanitarian aid,” the official said of the Emirati government.

The official added: “It has been a challenge for the relationship, but in a way that keeps it strong.”