UAE CLIENT STATE OF KSA
UAE sentences ex-lawyer of Jamal Khashoggi to three years in prison
US citizen Asim Ghafoor detained in Dubai and convicted two days later of money laundering and tax evasion
UAE sentences ex-lawyer of Jamal Khashoggi to three years in prison
US citizen Asim Ghafoor detained in Dubai and convicted two days later of money laundering and tax evasion
Dubai international airport, where plainclothes security agents detained Asim Ghafoor. Photograph: Jon Gambrell/AP
Associated Press in Dubai
Sun 17 Jul 2022
The United Arab Emirates has sentenced the former lawyer of Jamal Khashoggi – the dissident Saudi journalist who was killed at Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul in 2018 – to three years in prison on charges of money laundering and tax evasion.
The Abu Dhabi money laundering court also ordered Asim Ghafoor, a US citizen, to pay a fine of more than $800,000 (£675,000) stemming from his in absentia conviction, the UAE’s state-run WAM news agency reported.
The UAE’s state-linked newspaper The National said he would be deported to the US after completing his sentence.
The UAE framed Ghafoor’s arrest as a coordinated move with the US to “combat transnational crimes”. State-run media said US authorities had requested the UAE’s help with an investigation into his alleged tax evasion and suspicious money transfers.
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The prison sentence was announced a day after the Washington-based human rights watchdog Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn) raised alarm about the arrest of Ghafoor, one of its board members, at Dubai international airport.
Dawn said Ghafoor, a civil rights lawyer based in Virginia who had represented Khashoggi and his fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, was in transit to Istanbul on Thursday to attend a wedding when plainclothes security agents detained him and sent him to an Abu Dhabi detention facility before he could change planes.
Ghafoor had no knowledge of any case against him and had transited through Dubai without incident less than a year ago, DAWN said.
The US embassy in Abu Dhabi did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Associated Press in Dubai
Sun 17 Jul 2022
The United Arab Emirates has sentenced the former lawyer of Jamal Khashoggi – the dissident Saudi journalist who was killed at Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul in 2018 – to three years in prison on charges of money laundering and tax evasion.
The Abu Dhabi money laundering court also ordered Asim Ghafoor, a US citizen, to pay a fine of more than $800,000 (£675,000) stemming from his in absentia conviction, the UAE’s state-run WAM news agency reported.
The UAE’s state-linked newspaper The National said he would be deported to the US after completing his sentence.
The UAE framed Ghafoor’s arrest as a coordinated move with the US to “combat transnational crimes”. State-run media said US authorities had requested the UAE’s help with an investigation into his alleged tax evasion and suspicious money transfers.
Sign up to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every weekday morning at 7am BST
The prison sentence was announced a day after the Washington-based human rights watchdog Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn) raised alarm about the arrest of Ghafoor, one of its board members, at Dubai international airport.
Dawn said Ghafoor, a civil rights lawyer based in Virginia who had represented Khashoggi and his fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, was in transit to Istanbul on Thursday to attend a wedding when plainclothes security agents detained him and sent him to an Abu Dhabi detention facility before he could change planes.
Ghafoor had no knowledge of any case against him and had transited through Dubai without incident less than a year ago, DAWN said.
The US embassy in Abu Dhabi did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
BY CAROLINE VAKIL - 07/16/22
A human rights group alleged on Friday that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) detained a lawyer that previously represented the slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) said in a press release that Asim Ghafoor, who is a U.S. citizen and a board member of the organization, sent a text early Thursday saying that he had been approached by two UAE security agents while he was at the airport in Dubai. Ghafoor was on his way to a family wedding in Turkey and had been waiting for his next flight.
DAWN said it also received a photo from him showing him inside a police wagon, but did not hear from him after that.
The group said in its press release it believed he had been detained “on what appears to be a politically motivated in absentia conviction.”
DAWN noted that it had also reached out to the State Department about the situation and that a senior official told it they were working on his case.
“We are outraged at the unjustified detention of our board member and extremely concerned for his health and physical security given the well-documented record of abuse in the UAE, including torture and inhuman treatment,” Sarah Leah Whitson, DAWN’s executive director, said in a statement.
“We urge the Biden administration to secure the release of an arbitrarily detained American lawyer before agreeing to meet with the UAE’s leader [Mohamed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan] in Jeddah tomorrow.”
A State Department spokesperson told The Hill in a statement that the department was aware of Ghafoor’s arrest and had “raised his detention at senior levels with Emirati authorities.”
“We are watching his case closely and providing appropriate consular support; consular officers from the U.S. Embassy visited him today. We have conveyed our expectation that Mr. Ghafoor’s rights to a fair and public hearing and to fair trial guarantees be fully respected and that he be treated humanely, as well as that U.S. rights to consular access be fully respected,” the spokesperson said.
The Hill has reached out to the White House and UAE Embassy in Washington, D.C., for comment.
President Biden was in the Middle East this week for a multi-country trip that included stops in Israel, the West Bank and Saudi Arabia. His trip to Saudi Arabia has been considered controversial given human rights concerns and the conclusion of U.S. intelligence that the assassination of Khashoggi was approved by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
A photo circulated of Biden fist-bumping the Saudi crown prince, a move which drew immediate criticism from some.
Khashoggi’s fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, tweeted a message she said Khashoggi would have posted in reaction to the fist-bump, reading, “Hey @POTUS, Is this the accountability you promised for my murder? The blood of MBS’s next victim is on your hands.”
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