The key facts
- Eight people sentenced to life imprisonment for illegal arms trading in favour of a party to the Sudanese conflict
- AED 1.5 million confiscated; six companies fined AED 1 million each and stripped of their licences
- Two defendants acquitted; those convicted will be deported from the UAE after serving their sentences
Verdict in the Sudanese arms trafficking case
The Abu Dhabi Federal Appeals Court has sentenced eight men to life imprisonment for their involvement in an illegal arms trafficking network linked to the civil war in Sudan. The verdict was announced on Thursday, as reported by the state news agency Wam, which The National cites.
The defendants' roles and the supply scheme
Those convicted are Rashid Omar Abdul Qadir Ali, Salah Abdullah Mohammed Mohammed Saleh (known as Salah Gosh), Ahmed Abdullah (Abdullah Halafalla), Ahmed Rabi Said Ahmed, Mohammed Fath Al-Beik, Yasser Al-Atta, Osman Al-Zubair and Maher Abdul Jalil. The court found that the transactions involved the supply of weapons, ammunition and military equipment to the Sudanese army, as well as the concealment of the true nature, sources and purpose of the funds: ammunition was imported into the UAE disguised as medical equipment, with payment made by bank transfers and in cash. Yasser Al-Atta, assistant to the commander-in-chief of the Sudanese army, ordered the purchase of weapons; Osman Al-Zubair, a financial official of the army responsible for armament needs, paid suppliers and passed funds to Jalil. Ali, according to the court's findings, played a central role, supplying weapons to the Sudanese armed forces, and received about AED 8 million in cash from Jalil in one of the deals. Mukhtar, former director of Salah's office in Sudanese intelligence, received the commission due to Salah Gosh.
Additional sentences, companies and acquittals
Ali, Saleh, Abdullah and Jalil, as well as Osman Babiker, Khalid Youssef Mukhtar and Ahmed Halafalla Abdullah, each received three years in prison for money laundering. The court confiscated AED 1.5 million (about $408,000) of the seized funds and ordered the deportation of those convicted after they serve their sentences. Six companies — Rashed Omar Brokerage Company, Portex Trade Limited, Apollara Electronics Trading Company, Yellow Sand Trading Company, Wardat Al Masarra Trading Company and Sudamina – Free Zone — were fined AED 1 million each and stripped of their licences; the laundered funds were confiscated. Al-Beik, a former adviser to the Sudanese finance minister, was additionally fined AED 146,000 for connecting Omar with the right people in order to obtain supplier status for the Sudanese army, even though the firm did not sell weapons. Two other defendants, Mubarak Ali Al-Sheikh and Musab Awad Al-Karim Hassan, were acquitted.
The court's findings
The court concluded that the arms deals were conducted in the interests of one of the parties to the Sudanese conflict and were 'capable of harming the UAE's relations with the international community and jeopardising its interests'. According to the court, the defendants traded weapons without a licence or permit and took part in a single illegal trafficking scheme using forged documents, companies and bank accounts in the UAE. Earlier, in August, the same court heard evidence in this case — The National reported on the course of the hearings.
