Emirati authorities have decided to prosecute Rabbi Zvi Cohen for “deliberate murder with terrorist intent,” but have not disclosed any details of the crime.
The United Arab Emirates sentenced three people to death on Monday for the kidnapping and murder of an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi last November, a case that raised concerns about the safety of the country's small but growing Jewish community.
The UAE state news agency WAM reported that the State Security Chamber of the Federal Court of Appeal in Abu Dhabi ruled to sentence Rabbi Zvi Kogan to death for “premeditated murder with terrorist intent.”
A fourth man was sentenced for aiding the crime — in what way, the government did not say — to prison and eventual deportation. The defendant was sentenced to life in prison, but that usually means release after 20 years or more.
Authorities have not released the identities of those sentenced, but the UAE Interior Ministry previously identified three men accused of murder: Olimboy Tohirovic and Mahmudjon Abdurakhim, both 28, and Azizbek Kamilovic, 33, all Uzbek nationals. State media published photographs of them, blindfolded and shackled at the wrists and ankles, after their extradition from Turkey.
“The accused hunted down and killed the victim,” WAM said in a report on Monday. “The evidence presented by the State Security Prosecutor's Office to the court included detailed confessions by the accused of committing the murders and kidnappings, as well as forensic reports, autopsy results, details of the crime weapons and witness statements.”
The report does not provide authorities with a motive for the killing of 28-year-old Rabbi Kogan or any additional details about how he was kidnapped and subsequently killed.
