Israeli Rabbi’s Murder: UAE Arrests Three Suspects

UAE authorities have arrested three people suspected of murdering an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi in the Gulf country, the Emirati Interior Ministry said on Sunday.

A ministry statement did not give further details on the suspects but said the ministry would use “all legal powers to respond decisively and without leniency to any actions or attempts that threaten societal stability.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office earlier on Sunday denounced the killing of the rabbi, Zvi Kogan, as a “heinous antisemitic terrorist act“, adding Israel would do everything it could to bring those responsible to justice.

Kogan, who worked in the UAE for the Orthodox Jewish group Chabad, which seeks to support Jewish life for thousands of Jewish visitors and residents in the Gulf Arab state, vanished in Dubai on Thursday. His body was found on Sunday.

Kogan had entered the UAE on his Moldovan passport and was a resident there, said the UAE statement, which was published by the state news agency.

Kogan’s body was found in the Emirati city of Al Ain, which borders Oman, though it is not clear if he was killed there or elsewhere, former Israeli Druze politician Ayoob Kara said in Dubai.

Kara said he was waiting for the UAE to finish an investigation but blamed Iran for the murder.

“The one enemy (Israel has) today is the terror and Iran that supports the terror. The indication that we have now is this is the direction of the investigation,” said Kara, a member of Israel’s ruling right-wing Likud party who works to promote economic relations between Israel and the Arab world.

Kara said Kogan’s body would be sent to Israel for burial after the UAE finished investigating.

Israeli authorities reissued their recommendation against all non-essential travel to the UAE and said visitors now there should minimise movement, remain in secure areas, and avoid visiting places associated with Israel and Jewish populations.

Reuters/Shakirat Sadiq