Sudanupdated 1h ago3 min read
MapAbu Dhabi Federal Court Sentences Eight Sudanese Men To Life Over Arms Deals With Sudanese Army
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Eight Sudanese defendants, including Yasser al-Atta and Salah Gosh, sentenced to life. Illicit arms trafficking and money laundering network supplied Sudanese Army via companies, banks, and cash.
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Life terms in Abu Dhabi
The Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal sentenced eight Sudanese men to life imprisonment in a case tied to "unlawful trading of weapons and ammunition for delivery to the Sudanese Army," including Yasser al-Ata, the Assistant Commander-in-Chief of the Sudanese Army, and Salah Qosh, the former head of the Sudanese Security and Intelligence Service. The court also sentenced Othman al-Zubair, the Sudanese Army’s former financial official, and ordered the confiscation of the "ammunition and phones and communication devices used in the crime" while banishing the convicted from the UAE after serving their sentences. The UAE News Agency said the case involved deals to supply weapons, ammunition, and military equipment to the Sudanese Army using companies, bank accounts, transfers, and cash within the Emirates without obtaining the necessary licenses and permits.
The court’s reasoning described Yasser al-Ata requesting to purchase weapons and military equipment and taking steps to obtain permission for the plane to land at Port Sudan airport, knowing the deal had been completed on UAE soil. The court also found that Othman al-Zubair undertook paying due amounts for the weapons deals and delivering the funds to Maher Abdul Jalil via the remittance system, with knowledge that there was no license for the defendants to trade weapons inside the UAE.
Cash, forged documents, and Port Sudan
The Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal said the network used commercial companies, bank transfers, and cash payments to facilitate arms deals and conceal the true source and destination of funds, with weapons and ammunition obtained and prepared for shipment to Port Sudan. The court found that cargo documentation falsely described the shipments as medical equipment and supplies, while it ordered confiscation of seized ammunition, communication devices and more than AED 1.5 million in funds linked to the case. The court also ordered deportation of convicted individuals from the UAE after they served their sentences, and it fined money laundering defendants one million dirhams each.
The court said the defendants brought "Goryunov-type ammunition" into the UAE in preparation for air transfer to Port Sudan, after presenting the plane’s payload as medical tools and supplies. The court concluded that forged documents and companies and bank accounts were used to pass the funds of the arms deals and conceal their sources and destinations.
Money laundering sentences and impact
The Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal sentenced multiple defendants to three years in prison each for money laundering, including Rashid Omar, Salah Qosh, Abdullah Khalaf Allah, Maher Abdul Jalil, Khalid Yusuf Mukhtar, and Ahmed Khalaf Allah Abdul, and it fined the named individuals one million dirhams each. The court also confiscated one million and 545 thousand dirhams of seized amounts and banished the convicted after serving the sentences, while it acquitted Mubarak Ali Al-Sheikh and Musab Awwad Al-Karim Hassan of the charges. The court imposed a fine of one million dirhams on six companies, ordered cancellation of their licences and registrations, and confiscated the seized funds derived from money laundering.
The court said the activities took place against the backdrop of the ongoing conflict in Sudan and found that the use of UAE territory and its financial system for such operations risked harming the country's interests and international relations. The rulings came as part of the UAE’s stance to curb illicit arms deals being passed to Sudan, with the Federal Court of Appeal describing the network’s activities as including forging official documents to conceal the nature of shipments and using commercial fronts, bank accounts, transfers, and cash flows.