The former American lawyer for slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was sentenced by an Emirati judge to pay a hefty fine for “money laundering”, has left the country after being deported, his council announced on Saturday.
“He is going to the United States,” Mrs.e Faisal Gill said his client Asim Ghafoor paid a fine of five million dirhams ($1.7 million Canadian).
Arrested in July in the United Arab Emirates and sentenced to three years in prison and a fine of three million dirhams ($1 million) for “money laundering linked to a tax evasion operation in the United States,” Mr. Ghafoor revoked his prison sentence. On Thursday.
A court in Abu Dhabi refused to pay him five million dirhams and ordered his deportation from Emirati territory.
According to the WAM news agency, Mr. Ghafoor is under investigation. In July, the US State Department rejected a request to arrest Mr Ghafoor and said the case did not appear to be related to his ties to Jamal Khashoggi.
Mr Ghafoor’s lawyer has assured him that no charges have been brought against him in the United States.
Mr. Ghafoor heads a law firm and is a board member of the human rights group Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), founded by Jamal Khashoggi.
The assassination of Mr. Khashoggi in 2018 by Saudi agents significantly damaged the image of the kingdom, a close ally of the neighboring United Arab Emirates.
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