Suspects in Israeli rabbi’s murder in UAE arrested in Turkey

The three main suspects in the murder of an Israeli rabbi in the United Arab Emirates were arrested by Turkish officers in Istanbul, Turkey’s security sources told AFP on Tuesday.

Tzvi Kogan, a 28-year-old UAE-based rabbi, was found dead last week, following what Israel’s prime minister called “an abhorrent anti-Semitic terrorist attack”.

Emirati authorities on Sunday said three suspects were in custody over the killing of Kogan, without specifying the location or circumstances of their arrest, before confirming on Monday that the men came from Uzbekistan.

Then on Tuesday, the UAE thanked Turkey for Ankara’s cooperation in their arrest, again without elaborating further.

“The murderers of Rabbi Tzvi Kogan… were arrested in a secret operation carried out by the National Intelligence Organization and the Turkish police,” Turkish security sources said on Tuesday evening.

The three men had been arrested in a taxi shortly after landing in Istanbul, and were subsequently extradited to the UAE, the same sources said.

Kogan’s death was a blow to the tiny Jewish and Israeli communities in the Muslim-majority UAE, which has kept a lower profile since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza in October 2023.