UAE overturns prison sentence for former Khashoggi attorney

By ISABEL DEBRE
Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The Emirati judicial department and a lawyer say the United Arab Emirates has overturned a three-year prison sentence for an American citizen who had represented the slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, killed at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul in 2018. The lawyer said on Wednesday that the UAE threw out the sentence and instead punished the American with a fine of $1.36 million and deportation. The U.S. citizen, Virginia-based lawyer Asim Ghafoor, had been convicted in absentia on charges of money laundering and tax evasion at some point in the past. Ghafoor’s supporters say Emirati security agents arrested him on arrival at Dubai International Airport and sent him to a detention facility in Abu Dhabi, where he was sentenced to three years.