UAE sentences former Khashoggi lawyer to 3 years in prison

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United Arab Emirates has sentenced an American citizen and the former lawyer of Jamal Khashoggi — the dissident Saudi journalist who was killed at Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul in 2018 — to three years in prison on charges of money laundering and tax evasion. The lawyer, U.S. citizen Asim Ghafoor, will be deported after serving his sentence, the UAE’s state-linked media reported late Saturday. The Abu Dhabi Money Laundering Court also ordered that Ghafoor pay a hefty fine stemming from his in absentia conviction. The autocratic Gulf Arab sheikhdom issued the sentence a day after a Washington-based human rights watchdog raised alarm about his arrest from Dubai International Airport.