UAE says suspects arrested in alleged killing of Israeli rabbi are from Uzbekistan

DUBAI: Three suspects held in the United Arab Emirates over the murder of an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi are from Uzbekistan, authorities in the Gulf state announced on Monday (Nov 25), saying they were working to determine their motives.

UAE-based rabbi Tzvi Kogan, 28, 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.

Kogan’s death came as a blow to the tiny Jewish and Israeli communities in the Muslim-majority UAE, which prides itself on its safety, stability and religious tolerance.

The three suspects were arrested on Sunday, and after “preliminary investigations” the interior ministry identified them in a statement.

“The authorities revealed the identities of the three perpetrators, all of whom are Uzbek nationals,” said the statement published Monday by the official WAM news agency.

It named them as Olimboy Tohirovich, 28, Makhmudjon Abdurakhim, 28, and Azizbek Kamilovich, 33.

The ministry said authorities were taking “the necessary actions to uncover the details, circumstances and motives of the crime”.

Kogan was in the UAE as a representative of the Chabad Hasidic movement, which is known for its outreach efforts worldwide.

An Israeli official, briefing journalists on condition of anonymity, said Kogan’s body could be repatriated on Monday.

The Chabad-Lubavitch movement said that he would “be laid to rest in Israel”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday condemned “the murder of an Israeli citizen and a Chabad emissary”, calling it “an abhorrent anti-Semitic terrorist attack”.

In Washington, the White House urged accountability for the “horrific crime”.

Neither Emirati nor Israeli officials provided any details about the circumstances of Kogan’s murder.