UAE names three Uzbeks arrested in case of murdered rabbi
The United Arab Emirates has named the three suspects arrested in the case of the murdered Moldovan-Israeli rabbi, Zvi Kogan, which Israel has branded a terror attack.
The United Arab Emirates has named the three suspects arrested in the case of the murdered Moldovan-Israeli rabbi, Zvi Kogan, which Israel has branded a terror attack.
The country’s Interior Ministry statement identified the three men as Olimpi Tohirovic, 28, Mahmoud John Abdul Rahim 28, and Azizi Kamilovic, 33.
The state-run WAM news agency carried images of the three men, their faces blurred, and did not mention charges filed against them.
Israel was quick to vow revenge for the killing of the 28-year-old who has been at the heart of building the UAE’s nascent Jewish community, which has thrived since the 2020 Abraham Accords brought peace between Israel and Arab nations including the UAE.
On Sunday, following the discovery of Kogan’s body, after he had been missing since Thursday, Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “The murder of Zvi Kogan is a criminal anti-Semitic terrorist incident. The State of Israel will act in all of its abilities to bring to justice the criminals responsible for his death."
Israeli security officials were quick to point the blame at Iran, which has carried out missions in the UAE before. In 2020, a German-Iranian was abducted from Dubai and in 2013, a British-Iranian is believed to have been murdered by Iranian agents in Dubai.
Kogan ran the kosher supermarket in Dubai, where hundreds of Jews and Israelis live, and hundreds of thousands more have flocked for tourism since 2020.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Oded Ailam, former head of counter-intelligence at Israel’s Mossad, said: "The case raises a wave of questions and speculation about what happened, with Iran immediately suspected of being behind the incident.
“The pattern of action attributed to the Iranians is well known: recruiting local or foreign criminals to carry out acts of sabotage, kidnapping or assassination. This pattern has been observed in failed operations in Mumbai, Thailand, Turkey and even Israel, but Iranian determination, along with the principle of the "law of large numbers", meaning that eventually one day the attempts will succeed, continues to pose a real threat.”
Reuters reported that since 2020, court documents and public statements by government officials have shown at least 33 assassination or abduction attempts in the West in which local or Israeli authorities allege an Iran link.
There has been no formal mention of Iran from either Israel or the UAE in relation to the case, but earlier this year, the IRGC had plotted to attack key Jewish centers in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, using a Tajik national.
If the incident is proven to be Iran-backed, it will indeed risk ties between the two countries which are already at odds amid a battle over sovereignty over three disputed islands in the Persian Gulf.
Between 2016 and 2022, the two countries had no diplomatic ties, the UAE aligning with Saudi which cut links after the storming of the Saudi embassy in Tehran in 2016 following Riyadh's execution of a prominent Shia Muslim cleric.
Only last year did Saudi resume ties with its regional rival.
Mr Ailam told The Telegraph: “It is not surprising that at this stage the authorities in the UAE are refraining from public statements attacking Iran, and are devoting their efforts to clandestine activity.”
Kogan will be buried in Jerusalem, where he was born, on Tuesday.
