Another possible embarrassing tail on the Khashoggi case for Joe Biden. American citizen Asim Ghafoor, a former lawyer for the journalist murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018, was arrested and sentenced by a UAE court to three years in prison for tax evasion and money laundering. The CNN reports, citing the Arab state agency Wam, according to which the case emerged when the US authorities asked the Emirates for legal assistance in their investigations on Ghafoor for tax evasion and suspicious transfers in that country.
“We are outraged by the unjustified detention of our member and extremely concerned about his health and physical safety, given the well-documented history of abuse in the UAE, including torture and inhumane treatment”: so Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the human rights organization Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn), commented on the arrest and sentencing of lawyer Asim Ghafoor, whose release she is seeking. The lawyer, who came from the USA, was arrested in Dubai in transit to Istanbul. A year ago he passed without any problems, according to Dawn.
The US State Department reported that it raised the issue of his detention with the Emirati authorities and expressed the hope that all the rights and guarantees of the detainee are respected. Some American leaders admitted that they are aware of the situation but that “there is no indication that it has anything to do with Khashoggi”. Yesterday in Jeddah Biden invited his Emirati counterpart, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, to visit the White House later this year, after glacial reports in recent months.