UAE sentences former Khashoggi lawyer to 3 years in prison
The United Arab Emirates has sentenced an American citizen and the former lawyer of Jamal Khashoggi — the dissident Saudi journalist who was killed at Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul in 2018 — to three years in prison on charges of money laundering and tax evasion.
The lawyer, US citizen Asim Ghafoor, will be deported, the UAE’s state-run WAM news agency reports, without saying when. The Abu Dhabi Money Laundering Court also ordered that Ghafoor pay a fine of $816,748.
The UAE framed Ghafoor’s arrest as a coordinated move with the US to “combat transnational crimes.” Emirati state-run media said American authorities had requested the UAE’s help with an investigation into Ghafoor’s alleged tax evasion and suspicious money transfers in the Emirates.
