An American lawyer who represented murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi has been sentenced to 3 years in jail within the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after being detained at an airport amid President Joe Biden’s controversial journey to the Middle East.
Asim Ghafoor, a US citizen and Virginia-based civil rights lawyer, was convicted of tax evasion and cash laundering associated to a tax evasion operation within the US, UAE state media WAM reported on Saturday.
The Abu Dhabi Money Laundering Court sentenced him to 3 years in jail and a high-quality of three million dirhams ($816,748 USD), then deportation from the UAE, two days after he was arrested at Dubai airport.
State media stated that his conviction got here after US authorities reached out to their UAE counterparts for judicial help relating to their investigations of Mr Ghafoor for alleged tax evasion and making suspicious cash transfers to the Middle Eastern nation.
The US has not confirmed this model of occasions.The Independent has reached out to the US State Department to confirm this account.
The State Department confirmed that it was conscious of Mr Ghafoor’s detention in an announcement on Saturday. It got here as Mr Biden held a gathering with UAE President Sheik Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to additional relations between the 2 nations.
“We are aware of the arrest of US citizen Asim Ghafoor in the UAE. We have raised his detention at senior levels with Emirati authorities and requested additional information. We are watching his case closely and providing appropriate consular support; consular officers from the US Embassy visited him today,” a State Department spokesperson stated.
“We have conveyed our expectation that Mr. Ghafoor’s rights to a fair and public hearing and to fair trial guarantees be fully respected and that he be treated humanely, as well as that US rights to consular access be fully respected.”
Earlier, US officers instructed reporters that there was “no indication that it has anything to do with the Khashoggi issue”.
Mr Ghafoor, who beforehand represented Mr Khashoggi, was detained in Dubai on Thursday whereas travelling to Istanbul for a household marriage ceremony.
Human rights group, Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), stated he was being held in a detention facility in Abu Dhabi on prices associated to an in absentia conviction for cash laundering. Mr Ghafoor reportedly had no prior information of any conviction.
The human rights group, of which Mr Ghafoor is a co-founder and board member, known as on Mr Biden to boost the problem when he met with the UAE president in Saudi Arabia on Saturday.
It is unclear if Mr Ghafoor’s detention was raised in what gave the impression to be a pleasant assembly between the 2 leaders. During the assembly, Mr Biden formally invited his UAE counterpart, who took workplace in May, to go to the US this yr.
“Challenges you face today only make it a heck of a lot more important we spend time together,” Mr Biden instructed him. “I want to formally invite you to the States.”
The Independent has reached out to the White House for remark.
The assembly got here as Mr Biden met with a number of Middle East leaders as a part of his four-day journey to the area, together with the person believed to have ordered the hit on Mr Khashoggi.
On 2 October 2018, Mr Khashoggi, a Washington Post journalist and outspoken critic of the Saudi authorities, was murdered contained in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
US intelligence businesses concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, often known as MBS, had ordered his killing.
Mr Biden met with MBS on Friday throughout his controversial journey, telling reporters after that he had confronted the crown prince about his function within the homicide. MBS denied any accountability and fired again on the president with the US’s personal controversies.
Saudi officers later claimed that they “didn’t hear” Mr Biden elevate Khashoggi’s demise with the crown prince – feedback that the US president immediately stated have been unfaithful.
Mr Biden’s choice to go to Saudi Arabia and meet MBS has come beneath hearth, notably given Mr Biden’s statements throughout his 2020 White House marketing campaign that he would make Saudi Arabia a “pariah”.
The president sparked additional backlash when he greeted MBS with a pleasant fist-bump at first of their assembly on Friday.
Source: www.impartial.co.uk