A court in the United Arab Emirates has sentenced three Uzbek nationals to death for the murder of Rabbi Tzvi Kogan in November last year, Ynetnews.com reported, citing official Israeli sources.
The verdict was delivered on Sunday, March 30. Social media posts also circulated an audio recording of one of the defendants speaking with his family, telling his mother and sister that «all three of them» had received the death sentence. However, the authenticity of the recording has not been confirmed.
Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has yet to issue an official statement on the case, stating that it is verifying information about the sentence through its own channels.
Rabbi Kogan was reported missing on November 21, 2024. UAE police later discovered his body showing signs of violent death. Three suspects—Uzbek nationals identified by law enforcement as 28-year-old Olimpi Tohirovich, 28-year-old Makhmudjon Abdurrahim, and 33-year-old Azizi Kamilovich—were arrested shortly afterward.
ℹ️ Tzvi Kogan, an Israeli and Moldovan citizen, was the head of the Orthodox Jewish group Chabad in the UAE and served as the country’s deputy chief rabbi.
Following the murder, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office strongly condemned the crime, calling it a «heinous act of terrorism.» Officials also stated they would do everything possible to bring those responsible to justice. At the time, Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency was reported to be involved in investigating the circumstances of the attack.
