DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United Arab Emirates has sentenced the former lawyer of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi to three years in prison for money laundering and tax evasion.
The lawyer, Asim Ghafoor, a US citizen, will also have to pay a fine of $816,748 for his trial in absentia, the Emirati news agency WAM reported on Saturday night.
The Emirati newspaper The National reported that Ghafoor will be deported to the United States after completing his sentence.
The Emirates said the arrest came in coordination with the United States “to combat transnational crime.” Emirati state media reported that US authorities have asked the Emirates for help in investigating Ghafoor’s alleged tax evasion and suspicious financial dealings.
The autocratic Arab country announced the sentence a day after Democracy for the Arab World Now, DAWN, a Washington-based humanitarian group, sounded the alarm following Ghafoor’s arrest at Dubai International Airport.
The group reported that Ghafoor, a Virginia-based civil rights lawyer who represented Khashoggi and his girlfriend Hatice Cengiz, was stopping over in Istanbul on Thursday for a wedding when Emirati security agents intercepted him and sent him to a detention center. detention in Abu Dhabi.
Ghafoor was unaware of any charges against him and made a stopover in Dubai without issue less than a year ago, DAWN said.
The US embassy in Abu Dhabi has not immediately responded to requests for comment.