UAE sentences killers of Israeli rabbi to death

By Menna AlaaElDin and Jana Choukeir

(Reuters) -The United Arab Emirates on Monday sentenced three people to death for the murder of an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi who was killed in November in the Gulf country, state news agency WAM reported.

The Abu Dhabi Federal Appeal Court ruled the murder of Zvi Kogan, 28, was committed by the defendants in pursuance of a "terrorist purpose," according to WAM.

Kogan, who had been living in the UAE, was a representative in the UAE of Chabad, an Orthodox Jewish group that has chapters around the world and seeks to build links with non-affiliated and secular Jews or other sects of Judaism.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office had denounced Kogan's killing as an "antisemitic terrorist act".

Three of the defendants were found guilty of Kogan's murder, while a fourth defendant was sentenced to life in prison in connection with the killing. Death penalty sentences can be challenged on appeal under Emirati law.

The UAE interior ministry said in November that three of the people arrested were citizens of Uzbekistan.

Such crimes are rare in the UAE, which is largely viewed as one of the safest places in the Middle East.

Kogan had been living in the UAE for several years and had been involved in outreach to the country's Jewish community. He was reported missing in November with his body discovered days later in the Emirati city of Al Ain which borders Oman.

The UAE's Israeli and Jewish community has grown more visible since 2020, when the UAE became the most prominent Arab state in 30 years to establish formal ties with Israel under a U.S.-brokered agreement dubbed the Abraham Accords.

The UAE has maintained the relationship during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, which has killed tens of thousands of people since it began in October 2023. However, Israelis and Jews have been less evident in public since the Hamas attack on Israeli communities of October 7, 2023, that triggered the Gaza conflict.

Members of the Jewish community said informal synagogues in Dubai were closed after the October 7 attack over security concerns, with Jews instead gathering to pray at home.

There are no official statistics on the number of Jews or Israelis living in the UAE. Jewish groups estimate there are several thousand.

(Reporting by Menna Alaa El-Din and Jana Chokeir; Editing by Alison Williams)