The former American lawyer for assassinated Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was sentenced to a large fine by the Emirati judiciary for “money laundering,” left the country following his expulsion, his council said on Saturday.
“He’s on his way to the United States,” Faisal Gill told AFP, adding that his client Asim Ghafoor paid his five million dirham (C$1.7 million) fine.
Mr Ghafoor was arrested in the United Arab Emirates in July and sentenced to three years in prison and a fine of three million dirhams ($1 million) for “money laundering in connection with a tax evasion operation in the United States”. His prison sentence was lifted on Thursday.
A court in Abu Dhabi then ordered him to pay five million dirhams and expelled him from the territory of the Emirates.
According to the WAM news agency, Mr Ghafoor was prosecuted at the request of the American authorities. In July, the US State Department denied a request to arrest Mr Ghafoor, saying the case did not appear to be linked to his ties to Jamal Khashoggi.
Mr Ghafoor’s lawyer asserted that no charges had been brought against him in the United States.
Mr Ghafoor is the head of a law firm and a board member of the human rights group Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), founded by Jamal Khashoggi.
The 2018 assassination of Mr Khashoggi by Saudi agents had significantly tarnished the image of the kingdom, a close ally of the neighboring United Arab Emirates.