The three suspects in the murder of Rabbi Zvi Kogan in the United Arab Emirates were captured in a covert operation in Istanbul by Turkish intelligence and the police, a Turkish security official said Tuesday.
The suspects, all of Uzbek origin, were deported to the Emirates at the request of the UAE government, according to the same source. At the same time, the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs thanked the Turkish authorities for their assistance in arresting the suspects. It appears Israel was not involved in the arrest operation.
On Monday, photos of the three men - Olimpi Toirovich, 28; Makhmudjon Abdurakhim, 28; and Azizbek Kamlovich, 33 - were distributed in the Emirates; They are shown handcuffed with blindfolds and blue prison uniforms. The United Arab Emirates reportedly is likely to demand that the three be sentenced to death.
No suspected motive for the murder was announced, though Israel has called it an antisemitic terrorist attack.
The body of the Chabad emissary was found in the city of Al-Ain, three days after he was kidnapped from Dubai. On Monday it was put on a plane in a coffin, and Monday night Kogan was buried in Jerusalem.
The funeral procession of Rabbi Zvi Kogan
(Video: Shilo Freid, Yaron Brenner)
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Meanwhile, Jared Kushner, the Jewish son-in-law of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, announced Monday that he and his wife, Ivanka Trump, donated a million dollars to the Chabad house in the United Arab Emirates, following theKogan's murder.
"He was murdered to stop the historic bridges he built between Jews and Muslims in the United Arab Emirates," Kushner wrote.