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

DUBAI: Three suspects arrested in the United Arab Emirates and accused of murdering an Israeli rabbi in the UAE are citizens of Uzbekistan, the UAE ministry of interior said on Monday.

The ministry released a statement identifying the three men, two of whom it said were aged 28 and the third 33, and released images showing each of the three men blindfolded and handcuffed.

The investigation by Emirati authorities is continuing, the statement said, without saying whether the men had been charged.

The embassy of Uzbekistan in Abu Dhabi did not immediately respond to an emailed Reuters request for comment.

The body of the rabbi, Zvi Kogan, 28, was discovered on Sunday. He had been reported missing on Thursday and an Israeli official has said it is believed Kogan was last seen in Dubai.

Emirati authorities have not said if they have established a motive. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said it was an “antisemitic terrorist act”, and the Israeli official had said it is believed Kogan was targeted because he was Jewish.

UAE confirms murder of Israeli-Moldovan, says 3 arrested

Former Israeli Druze politician Ayoob Kara, speaking to Reuters in Dubai on Sunday, accused Iran of being involved. Iran’s embassy in Abu Dhabi has rejected the accusation.

Kogan’s death has shaken the UAE’s Jewish community, which Jewish groups estimate to number in the several thousand.

Kogan was a resident of the UAE and also a Moldovan national, according to local authorities. He lived in the UAE for several years, working with the New York-based Orthodox Jewish Chabad movement, involved in Jewish community outreach.

Israeli agencies are taking part in the investigation, the Israeli official told Reuters on Sunday. The Moldovan foreign ministry has said that it is contact with UAE authorities.

UAE Ambassador to Washington Yousef Al Otaiba has said that Kogan’s murder was a crime against the Gulf Arab country, which sits on the Arabian Peninsula and across the Gulf from Iran.

The Israeli and Jewish community in the UAE has grown more visible since 2020, when the Gulf Arab country established official ties with Israel under a U.S.-brokered agreement.

The UAE has maintained ties with Israel amid the 13-month-old Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. But Israelis and Jews have been less evident in public since the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war, which sparked protests worldwide.