UAE Exposes 3 Suspects in Murder of Chabad Emissary Rabbi Zvi Kogan

by Max Grober

United Arab Authorities (UAE) security authorities revealed on Monday photos of three suspects who are believed to be behind the murder of Rabbi Zvi Kogan, an Israeli-Moldavian citizen and a Chabad Emissary to UAE who went missing last week and whose brutalized body was uncovered on Sunday.

The UAE Ministry of Interior published the names of the three who were arrested after the brutal murder in Abu Dhabi – Olympi Toirovitch (28), Makhmudjon Abdurakhim (28), and Azizti Kamlovich (33), all Uzbek citizens.

“We arrested the murderers of Zvi Kogan, who held Moldovan citizenship and used it to enter the United Arab Emirates,” the Ministry of Interior announced after the arrests.

“After the victim’s family reported his disappearance, a search and investigation team was established, and the investigations led to the finding of the missing man’s body and the identification of the arrested criminals, and we took the necessary legal procedures. All circumstances of the incident will be published after the investigations are completed.”

The three could face execution.

A Mossad team was reportedly involved in the investigation.

The initial inquiry shows that the three terrorists followed Rabbi Kogan, 28, to the city of Al Ain in the UAE, where they abducted and murdered him. The suspects planned to flee to Turkey but were arrested by the authorities before reaching their destination.

According to initial estimates, the murderers were dispatched by Iran. However, Israel’s Ynet News reported that the terror cell was sent by a terror organization, possibly Islamic Jihad or Hamas.

Iran is the immediate suspect as it has cultivated terror organizations all around the globe and has used proxy organizations to harm Jewish targets. However, it now claims it was not behind this attack.

The Iranian embassy in the UAE told Reuters on Sunday that it “categorically rejects the allegations of Iran’s involvement in the murder of this individual.”

Speaking at the start of a government meeting on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed “deep outrage – on behalf of myself, all members of the Government, all citizens of Israel, and the entire Jewish people – over the abduction and murder of Zvi Kogan, may God avenge him.”

“The murder of an Israeli citizen and a Chabad emissary is an abhorrent antisemitic terrorist attack,” he declared. “The State of Israel will use all means and will deal with these murderers, and those who dispatched them, to the fullest extent of the law. None of them will get away.”

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