The Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal on Thursday, October 29, 2026, sentenced eight people to life imprisonment, including Yasser al-Atta, chief of staff of the Sudanese Armed Forces, and Salah Gosh, the country’s former intelligence chief, over the illegal trade of arms and ammunition for the Sudanese army. The court found that the defendants were involved in an organised arms-smuggling network that used forged documents, commercial companies and bank accounts in the UAE to transfer funds from multimillion-dollar deals and conceal their origin and destination.

According to the Emirates News Agency (WAM), the court said al-Atta, who was assistant commander-in-chief of the Sudanese Armed Forces and responsible for armaments at the time of the transactions before being appointed chief of staff in April 2026, had submitted requests to purchase weapons and military equipment. Despite knowing that the unauthorised deal was being conducted on UAE soil, he also sought landing clearance at Port Sudan Airport for the aircraft carrying the ammunition.

In addition to al-Atta and Salah Gosh, who headed Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service under Omar al-Bashir and has been under US sanctions since 2023, six others were sentenced to life imprisonment: Rashid Omar Abdul Qadir Ali, the main coordinator of the deals; Othman al-Zubair, the official responsible for financing arms supplies for the Sudanese army; Maher Abdul Jalil, an intermediary and the network’s financial operative; Ahmed Abdullah, also known as Abdullah Khalafallah; Ahmed Rabie Sayed Ahmed; and Mohamed Fath al-Beik.

According to the ruling, Rashid Omar Abdul Qadir was responsible, through his company, for coordinating and procuring weapons for the Sudanese army and had received about AED 8 million in cash from Maher Abdul Jalil as partial payment for the deals. Othman al-Zubair, who was responsible for following up on arms requirements, inspecting shipments and settling payments with Sudanese army suppliers, transferred the transaction funds to Abdul Jalil through a hawala network.

The court said the network had brought Goryunov machine-gun ammunition into the UAE using forged documents that described the consignment as “medical equipment and supplies”, with the intention of transporting it by air to Port Sudan.

The ruling also detailed the political and financial roles of other network members. Ahmed Rabie Sayed Ahmed, a politician close to Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, commander-in-chief of the Sudanese Armed Forces, mediated to secure the army leadership’s approval of Rashid Omar’s company and attended meetings at Salah Gosh’s home alongside Rashid Omar and Abdullah Khalafallah. Mohamed Fath al-Beik, a former adviser to Sudan’s finance minister, received AED 146,000 to facilitate the approval of Rashid Omar’s company as an army supplier. Khalid Yusuf Mukhtar, the former director of Gosh’s office, also received his share of the deal’s commission.

The case first emerged on April 30, 2025, when authorities announced the discovery of an illegal ammunition shipment. UAE Attorney-General Hamad Saif al-Shamsi said at the time that security forces had found about five million rounds of 7.62×54mm Goryunov ammunition while inspecting a private aircraft that had landed at a UAE airport to refuel. UAE authorities also announced the arrest of several network members and the seizure of part of the cash proceeds from the transactions in the hotel room of two defendants.

According to prosecution investigations disclosed when the case was referred to court on April 30, 2026, the network carried out two deals at the request of the Sudanese army’s armaments committee. The first deal, conducted outside the UAE, involved the purchase of Kalashnikov rifles, machine guns and grenades for a declared value of $13 million, although their actual value did not exceed $10 million. The difference was intended to fund illegal commissions. In the second deal, more than $2 million from the proceeds of the first transaction was used to purchase another shipment of Goryunov ammunition, which was seized before it could be transported to Sudan.

In another part of its ruling, the Abu Dhabi court treated money laundering as a separate offence and sentenced seven people to three years in prison and fined each AED 1 million. Four of them — Rashid Omar, Salah Gosh, Abdullah Khalafallah and Maher Abdul Jalil — were also among those sentenced to life imprisonment. The other three were Othman Babiker, Khalid Yusuf Mukhtar and Ahmed Khalafallah, Abdullah Khalafallah’s brother, who the court said had received AED 1.85 million from the first deal.

Two other defendants, Mubarak Ali al-Sheikh and Musab Awad al-Karim Hassan, were acquitted. Of the 13 individual defendants in the case, 11 were convicted and two acquitted. Lawyers for some defendants had previously argued during court hearings that their clients had been exploited to establish shell companies and provide access to bank accounts.

Six UAE-registered companies — Rashid Omar Brokerage, Portex Trade Limited, Abu Lara Electronics Trading, Yellow Sand Trading, Wardat Al Masarra Trading and Sudamina Free Zone Company — were each fined AED 1 million for money laundering. The court also revoked their operating licences and commercial registrations and ordered the confiscation of money-laundering proceeds, AED 1,545,000 in seized funds, the recovered ammunition and communications devices used in the offences. The convicted defendants will be deported from the UAE after serving their sentences.

The court stressed that using UAE territory and its financial system for illegal arms deals benefiting one of the parties to the war in Sudan could, given international restrictions, harm the UAE’s foreign relations and national interests.

The Sudanese army rejected Abu Dhabi’s account in April 2025, immediately after the shipment was discovered. Army spokesman Nabil Abdullah said Sudan had no need to smuggle weapons and accused the UAE of supplying the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), an allegation Abu Dhabi has repeatedly denied.

Sudanese authorities announced the severing of diplomatic relations with the UAE on May 6, 2025. The decision came one day after the International Court of Justice dismissed Sudan’s case against the UAE for lack of jurisdiction, without ruling on the substance of the allegations against the UAE.