Three people have been arrested in the United Arab Emirates in connection with the alleged murder of an Israeli citizen, Rabbi Tzvi Kogan, the Emirati Interior Ministry said on Sunday. UNN reports this with reference to Reuters.
Details
In the statement, the ministry did not provide detailed information about the suspects or say whether they had been charged, but said that all legal powers would be used “to respond decisively and gently to any actions or attempts that threaten the stability of society.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office condemned the murder of 28-year-old rabbi Tzvi Kogan as a “horrific anti-Semitic terrorist act” and said that Israel would do everything possible to bring the perpetrators to justice.
According to local authorities, Kogan lived in the UAE and had Moldovan citizenship. He worked for the Chabad Orthodox Jewish movement based in New York, and his disappearance was first reported on Thursday. His body was found on Sunday.
The Emirates' ambassador to Washington, D.C., Yousef al-Otaiba, said that Kogan's murder was a crime against the UAE and “an attack on our homeland, our values and our vision.
“We support peaceful coexistence. We reject extremism and fanaticism of any kind,” he said in a statement published on the X website.
The Emirati authorities did not say whether a motive for the murder had been established, but Israeli officials said that Kogan was targeted because he was Jewish, without providing further details.
An official representative of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that all Israeli agencies are involved in the investigation and that Kogan was last seen in a kosher supermarket in Dubai.
Зниклого в ОАЕ рабина було вбито - влада Ізраїлю24.11.24, 10:52
Kogan's body was found in the Emirati city of Al Ain, which borders Oman, although it is unclear whether he was killed there or elsewhere, former Israeli politician Ayob Kara told Reuters in Dubai.
Kara, a member of Israel's ruling right-wing Likud party who promotes economic relations between Israel and the Arab world, said there is reason to believe that investigators suspect Iranian involvement.
The Iranian Embassy in the UAE stated that it “categorically rejects the allegations of Iranian involvement in the murder of this man”.
Israel has reissued a recommendation to citizens to avoid traveling to the UAE. And those who are there should minimize their movements, stay in safe areas and avoid visiting places associated with Israel and the Jewish population.
The White House said it was working in close coordination with Israel and the United Arab Emirates on the rabbi's case.