A court in the United Arab Emirates on March 31, 2025, sentenced three people to death and another to life in prison for the killing of Israeli-Moldovan rabbi Zvi Kogan, state media said. The verdict was announced by the state-run WAM agency after a trial in Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal's State Security Chamber.
WAM said the three men had tracked and murdered Kogan, and that the evidence included confessions, forensic reports, post-mortem findings, details of the instruments used in the crime and witness testimony. The agency did not identify the defendants, but AP noted that three Uzbek nationals had earlier been arrested in Turkey and brought back to the UAE over the killing in November.
Authorities did not disclose a motive or the precise circumstances of the kidnapping and killing. That leaves the case legally resolved but publicly unfinished, especially because it unfolded amid the Israel-Hamas war and wider regional anger. Israel and the UAE have maintained diplomatic ties, though they have been strained by the conflict in Gaza.
Kogan was 28, ran a kosher grocery store in Dubai and was an emissary of the Chabad Lubavitch movement. The Jewish community in the UAE, small but visible, has grown since the 2020 Abraham Accords opened the door to more open ties with Israel. Kogan was buried in Israel after his death.
Capital punishment is rare in the UAE, but the AP report said executions typically follow once appeals are exhausted and are usually carried out by firing squad. The sentencing therefore moves the case into a new phase rather than ending it immediately.
The supplied evidence is careful not to claim a motive or assign blame beyond the convictions. That caution matters because the case sits at the intersection of criminal justice, diplomacy and communal fear, and the public record in the packet is limited to what the court and state media announced.
Kogan's profile helps explain why the case drew so much attention. As an emissary of Chabad Lubavitch and the operator of a kosher grocery in Dubai, he was part of a small but visible Jewish presence that had expanded after the Abraham Accords. The murder therefore resonated well beyond one criminal file and into a city that had become a regional hub for Israeli visitors and business.
The court record, as reported by WAM, centered on confessions and forensic evidence rather than public argument over motive. That is important because the packet does not say whether the death sentence reflects a political crime, a targeted killing or something else. What it does show is that the UAE moved quickly enough to announce severe punishments while still leaving the deeper reason for the killing undisclosed.
The court's secrecy around motive leaves the case open to interpretation, but the sentencing itself was unusually severe for the UAE. Because capital punishment is rare, three death verdicts plus a life sentence signal that prosecutors treated the killing as a grave offence even as they withheld the political or personal context. The packet shows a judicial outcome, not a full explanation of why Kogan was targeted.
