Three suspects arrested by Emirati authorities responsible for the alleged killing of Rabbi Zvi Kogan were from Uzbekistan, the United Arab Emirates Interior Ministry stated on Monday.
The ministry released a statement identifying the three men – Olimpi Tohirovich, 28, Makhmudjon Abdurrahim, 28, and Azizi Kamilovich, 33 – and released images showing each of the three men blindfolded and handcuffed. The investigation by Emirati authorities is continuing, the statement said, without saying whether the men had been charged.
The embassy of Uzbekistan in Abu Dhabi did not immediately respond to a request by Reuters for comment.
According to local authorities, Kogan was a UAE resident and a Moldovan national. He lived in the UAE for several years, working with the New York-based Orthodox Jewish Chabad movement involved in Jewish community outreach.
Kogan was a Chabad emissary to the UAE. He was initially reported missing by his family on Thursday, and his body was recovered on Sunday in the Emirati city of Al Ain, located about an hour-and-a-half drive’s distance from Dubai. An Israeli official has said it is believed Kogan was last seen in Dubai
'Terrorist incident'
Emirati authorities have not said if they have established a motive. The Prime Minister’s Office denounced Kogan’s death as a “heinous antisemitic terrorist act.
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“The murder of the late Zvi Kogan is a criminal antisemitic terrorist attack,” the PMO said. “The State of Israel will act by all means and bring the criminals responsible for his death to justice.”
Shortly after Kogan’s body was recovered, the UAE arrested three suspects believed to be the main perpetrators behind the kidnapping and murder.
The Mossad and authorities in the UAE opened the investigation based on information that Kogan’s murder might be related to “a terrorist incident.”
Former Israeli Druze politician Ayoob Kara, speaking to Reuters in Dubai on Sunday, accused Iran of being involved. Iran’s embassy in Abu Dhabi has rejected the accusation.“The one enemy [Israel has] today is terrorism, and Iran that supports the terrorism,” said Kara. “The indication that we have now is this is the direction of the investigation.”
Kogan’s body would be sent to Israel for burial after the UAE finished investigating, Kara said.
Israeli officials had suspected Iran’s involvement in the murder of Kogan and are now concerned about whether Tehran intends to deploy similar methods in other countries, including Thailand, Georgia, and parts of Europe.
Kogan’s death has shaken the UAE’s Jewish community, which Jewish groups estimate to number in the several thousand.UAE ambassador to Washington, Yousef Al Otaiba, said that Kogan’s murder was a crime against the Gulf Arab country, which sits on the Arabian Peninsula and across the Persian Gulf from Iran.
The Israeli and Jewish community in the UAE has grown more visible since 2020, when the Gulf Arab country established official ties with Israel under the Abraham Accords.
The UAE has maintained ties with Israel amid the war. But Israelis and Jews have been less evident in public since the deadly October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war.