Rabbi Zvi Kogan is pictured in an undated photo distributed by Chabad. In background: The Jewish Community Center of the UAE hosts Yom Kippur prayers in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sept. 15, 2021 (Andrea DiCenzo/Getty Images) Photo by Andrea DiCenzo/Getty Images
(JTA) — Three people convicted in the November killing of Rabbi Zvi Kogan in the United Arab Emirates have been sentenced to death, according to UAE state media.
Kogan, 28, a Moldovan-Israeli citizen, was working in the UAE last fall as an emissary of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement when he went missing in Dubai. His body was found days later.
Israeli sources suggested the killing was ordered by Iran, Israel’s chief regional adversary — a charge Iran has denied. The UAE has not made that accusation, but the Abu Dhabi Federal Appeal Court ruled that the murder was done for a “terroristic purpose,” according to Reuters. A fourth person convicted in connection with the murder was sentenced to life in prison.
Three of the people arrested in connection with the murder were from Uzbekistan, and were detained in Turkey before being extradited.
Chabad’s presence in the UAE expanded after Israel normalized its relations with the Gulf state in 2020. A small but growing Jewish population lives full-time in the country, which became a popular tourist destination after the normalization deal, known as the Abraham Accords.
Chabad sends thousands of rabbis and their families to serve Jewish communities across the globe, and a number of its emissaries and institutions have come under attack. In 2008, a terror attack in Mumbai killed a Chabad rabbi and his wife, along with several others. A Chabad rabbi was stabbed in Boston in 2021, and earlier this month, a Chabad rabbi walking with his son in the French city Orléans was allegedly assaulted in an antisemitic attack.
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