United Arab Emirates sentences Khashoggi's former US lawyer to prison on money laundering charges
- Former lawyer to murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi was arrested by UAE agents in Dubai, Reuters reported.
- Asim Ghafoor, a US citizen, was reportedly heading to a family wedding when he was arrested.
A United Arab Emirates court sentenced the former lawyer of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi to three years in prison on charges of money laundering Thursday, Reuters reported.
A UAE government official confirmed that Asim Ghafoor was detained while passing through Dubai International Airport on Thursday on charges related to an "in absentia" conviction for money laundering, which an Emirati court heard.
The Human rights organization Democracy for the Arab World Now, of which Ghafoor was a board member, stated in a release that Ghafoor was in transit to attend a family wedding in Istanbul when UAE agents arrested him while waiting for his flight.
According to DAWN, Ghafoor and Khashoggi were close friends, and his fiance and the organization are in current litigation against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the death of Khashoggi in 2018.
"We are outraged at the unjustified detention of our board member and extremely concerned for his health and physical security given the well-documented record of abuse in the UAE, including torture and inhuman treatment," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director of DAWN said in the release.
According to the statement, the last contact DAWN had with Ghafoor was a picture of himself in the police Wagon.
The Abu Dhabi Money Laundering Court convicted Ghafoor of committing "two crimes of tax evasion and money laundering related to a tax evasion operation in his country and sentenced him to three years in prison and a fine of three million dirhams [$US 816,748], with deportation from the UAE," UAE state media reported, according to CNN.
A senior US administration told CNN reporters on Saturday that they were aware of Ghafoor's arrest but could not say whether President Joe Biden would raise the issue with the UAE president during his visit to the Middle East.
"We are aware of the arrest of U.S. citizen Asim Ghafoor in the UAE. We have raised his detention at senior levels with Emirati authorities and requested additional information. We are watching his case closely and providing appropriate consular support; consular officers from the U.S. Embassy visited him today," a State Department spokesperson told CNN. "We have conveyed our expectation that Mr. Ghafoor's rights to a fair and public hearing and to fair trial guarantees be fully respected and that he be treated humanely, as well as that U.S. rights to consular access be fully respected."
Biden told reporters on Friday that he addressed Khashoggi's killing directly with Prince bin Salman and said he believed the Crown Prince was responsible.
Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan responded to Biden's remarks to reporters on Saturday, saying "that this crime while very unfortunate and abhorrent is something that the Kingdom took very seriously, acted upon in a way commensurate with its position as a responsible country. These are issues, mistakes that happen in any country, including the US."
An Emirati official told Reuters that the UAE granted a request by the U.S embassy to conduct a consular visit, and Ghafoor is permitted to request a retrial since the original trial was held in absentia.