ABU DHABI — An Abu Dhabi court has sentenced eight people to life imprisonment over an arms-trafficking and money-laundering network that supplied weapons, ammunition and military equipment to Sudan's army, the United Arab Emirates' state news agency WAM reported on Thursday, in a verdict carried by Reuters.
Source: Reuters via Devdiscourse (WAM)
The Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal found that the network used commercial companies, bank transfers and cash payments to arrange the arms deals and conceal the true source and destination of the money, according to the court ruling reported by WAM and summarised by Virgin Radio Dubai. Weapons and ammunition were obtained and prepared for shipment to Port Sudan, while the cargo documents falsely described the shipments as medical equipment and supplies.
WAM named Yasser Al Atta, Salah Gosh and Othman Al Zubair among the eight sentenced to life imprisonment. Other defendants received prison terms and fines, and those convicted of money laundering were ordered to pay fines of AED 1 million each — yaani about 2.7 lakh US dollars each. The court ordered the confiscation of seized ammunition, communication devices and more than AED 1.5 million in funds linked to the case, and said the convicted individuals will be deported from the UAE after serving their sentences.
Six companies were also fined AED 1 million each for money-laundering offences, their licences and registrations were cancelled, and funds tied to the illegal activities were confiscated. Two defendants were acquitted. The court said the network used forged documents, companies and bank accounts, and that using UAE territory and its financial system for such operations risked harming the country's interests and international relations. The defendants had been referred to trial following an investigation ordered by UAE Attorney-General Dr Hamad Saif Al Shamsi.
A verdict after the April referral
The ruling is the verdict stage of a case Awaaz Punjab's readers first saw in April, when the UAE referred 13 defendants and six companies to court over an alleged attempt to move ammunition through UAE territory to the Sudanese army — a shipment prosecutors said was intercepted before transfer by private aircraft in 2025. The Sudanese Armed Forces rejected that report at the time as a fabrication.
The case lands against the backdrop of Sudan's war, which erupted in April 2023 from a power struggle between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Reuters has reported that the war has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced about 14 million. Ties between the UAE and Sudan have deteriorated during the war: the Sudanese army has accused the Gulf state of supplying arms to the RSF, an allegation the UAE denies, saying its role is strictly humanitarian.
The verdict shows a Gulf court jailing a network accused of arming one side of Sudan's war, even as that same Gulf state faces — and denies — accusations of arming the other side. With foreign weapons and fighters still flowing into Sudan, the case is a rare public courtroom account of how the war's supply lines are financed and disguised.