On allegations of money laundering and tax evasion, the United Arab Emirates has sentenced an American citizen and the former lawyer of Jamal Khashoggi — the dissident Saudi journalist who was assassinated at Saudi Arabia's embassy in Istanbul in 2018 — to three years in prison.

Asim Ghafoor, an attorney who is a citizen of the United States, would be deported, the UAE's state-run WAM news agency reported late Saturday, without specifying when. The Abu Dhabi Money Laundering Court also ordered Ghafoor to pay an $816,748 fine due to his conviction in absentia.

The UAE described the arrest of Ghafoor as a concerted effort with the United States to "combat transnational crimes." State-run Emirati media said that US authorities had asked for the UAE's assistance in investigating Ghafoor's alleged tax fraud and illicit money transfers in the Emirates.

The despotic Gulf Arab sheikhdom issued the prison sentence one day after the human rights organization Democracy for the Arab World Now, DAWN, raised the alarm about Ghafoor's detention at Dubai International Airport.

DAWN reported that its board member, a Virginia-based civil rights attorney who had represented Khashoggi and his fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, was in transit to Istanbul on Thursday to attend a wedding when he was arrested by plainclothes Emirati security agents and taken to an Abu Dhabi detention facility before he could change planes.

DAWN reported that Ghafoor was unaware of any case against him and had passed through Dubai without difficulty less than a year ago.

The US Embassy in Abu Dhabi did immediately not reply to a request for comment.

The sentencing occurred the day after US Vice President Joe Biden returned to Washington after leaving the region.

Biden was attacked for bumping fists with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. However, a CIA report handed to him concluded that the crown prince had ordered the murder and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Biden told reporters that he had brought up the Khashoggi case "at the very beginning" of his discussion with the crown prince, adding that he had made it clear "what I thought of it at the time and what I think of it now." An official with knowledge of the situation reported that bin Salman responded by bringing up the murder of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.