UAE arrests three Uzbek nationals as remains of murdered rabbi repatriated to Israel
United Arab Emirates authorities revealed on Monday the identities of the three suspects arrested for the murder of UAE-based Israeli-Moldovan rabbi Tzvi Kogan. All three suspects "are Uzbek nationals”, the interior ministry said. A plane carrying Kogan's body landed at Ben Gurion airport Monday, a spokeswoman for Israel's airport authority said.
Emirati authorities said Monday three suspects from Uzbekistan were in custody over the murder of a rabbi, a rare violent incident involving an Israeli citizen in the UAE, which signed a peace agreement with Israel in 2020.
Tzvi Kogan's death came as a blow to the tiny Jewish and Israeli communities in the Muslim-majority UAE, which have kept a lower profile since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza in October 2023.
The 28-year-old UAE-based rabbi was found dead by security services last week, following what Israeli officials and an ultra-Orthodox Jewish group he was affiliated with called an anti-Semitic attack.
The three suspects were arrested on Sunday, and after "preliminary investigations" the interior ministry identified them in a statement.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
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