According to recent media reports, the murderers of Shliach Rabbi Tzvi Kogan in Dubai, UAE, have been convicted of murder in court, and justice will be served for his death.
By Anash.org Reporter
Rabbi Kogan had managed the kosher supermarket Rimon in Dubai and together with his older brother, Rabbi Reuven Kogan, was involved with Chabad in the UAE, managing logistical and administrative operations for Jewish communities alongside the Chief rabbi of the UAE, Rabbi Levi Duchman.
He was married to a niece of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, the Shliach murdered in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
When Rabbi Kogan failed to appear for scheduled meetings and was unreachable throughout the day, his wife contacted the security officer at the Chabad house, who immediately notified local authorities as well as Israeli officials. Rabbi Kogan had been kidnapped and murdered by three individuals from Uzbekistan, who followed him after he left his grocery store, Rimon. His car was later found abandoned in Al Ain, approximately 150 km from Abu Dhabi and about an hour and a half from Dubai, with his phone turned off.
Shortly after, the UAE Ministry of Interior announced that they had apprehended the murderers of Shliach Tzvi Kogan HYD, identifying them as Olimbay Tohirovich (28), Mahmoud Jon Abd al-Rahim (28), and Azizet Kamalovich (33), all Uzbek nationals. The murderers had fled the United Arab Emirates and crossed the border into Turkey, where they were captured and subsequently deported back to the UAE.
Recent media reports have confirmed that the death sentence was recently imposed on Rabbi Kogan’s murderers. In a recording allegedly from one of the murderers talking to his mother, he says, “Mother, we were sentenced to death”. According to other reports, the murderers burst into tears upon hearing their sentencing.
How on earth is this conviction justice for Rabbi Kogen? Will it bring him back to life?
This is a very non Jewish approach to punishment and justice just think about it!
Valid point. This will, however, make beheimois think twice before doing such horrible things, seeing it’s guaranteed consinquence!
No, the non-Jewish approach is yours. The Jewish one is summarized by Rashi (Devarim 19:13): “You should not say, ‘The first one has already been killed. Why should we kill this one, the murderer?’”
The justice is following the sheva mitzvos benai noach, which in this case is to try the murderers according to their actions, and in this case the death sentence shows an honest judgement without bias, and they are being convicted according to the law of the land – and in fact definitely חייב מיתה according to Torah,
And yes we certainly should continue to demand complete justice from Hashem with הקיצו ורננו שוכני עפר והוא בתוכם תיכף ומיד ממש!
A very obvious lesson should be for Eretz Yisroel, that if muslims can sentence a muslim to death for killing a Jew in a pure terror attack (different to one person killing another amidst a dispute etc.), how much more so they can!