Ex-Khashoggi lawyer detained in UAE, rights group says

UAE security agents have detained US citizen Asim Ghafoor, former lawyer of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, on charges related to an in absentia conviction for money laundering.

Human rights group Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) in a statement said that Ghafoor, who is a co-founder and board member of their organization, was detained at Dubai airport on Thursday while travelling to Istanbul for a family wedding.

“Detaining Ghafoor on the basis of an in absentia conviction without providing him any information, notice, or opportunity to defend himself against is a flagrant violation of his due process rights,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Dawn’s executive director.

The Abu Dhabi Money Laundering Court convicted Ghafoor of committing “two crimes of tax evasion and money laundering related to a tax evasion operation in his country and sentenced him to three years in prison and a fine of three million dirhams ($US 816,748), with deportation from the UAE,” according to WAM.

Ghafoor stated he had no knowledge of any legal matter against him, Dawn said.

A senior US administration official, when asked by reporters about the detention, said the United States was aware of it and “there’s no indication that it has anything to do with Khashoggi or anything else.”

He also added that he could not say whether President Joe Biden planned to raise the issue in bilateral talks with UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed on the sidelines of an Arab summit in Saudi Arabia.

Biden was in West Asia this week for a multi-country trip that included stops in the Occupied Palestine, the West Bank and Saudi Arabia.

He has been fiercely criticized for his trip to Saudi Arabia, the country he had promised, when running for president in 2019, to make the “pariah that they are” over its human rights abuses, in particular the killing of dissident journalist Khashoggi on the direct orders of the Saudi crown prince, also known as MBS.

MG