ABU DHABI — The Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal sentenced eight men to life in prison on Thursday for trafficking weapons, ammunition and military equipment to the Sudanese army without a licence, and for laundering the money through companies and bank accounts in the United Arab Emirates, the state news agency Wam reported.

One of the men is now among the most senior officers in Sudan's military. The court identified Yasser Abdulrahman Al Atta as assistant to the commander-in-chief of the Sudanese Armed Forces and the officer responsible for armament, and said he had asked for the weapons to be bought and had worked to secure a landing permit for the aircraft at Port Sudan airport. Also sentenced was Salah Abdullah Mohammed Mohammed Saleh, known as Salah Gosh, the former Sudanese intelligence chief, who the court said had collected commissions from the deals.

Sudan's army-led authorities have accused Abu Dhabi for more than two years of arming the Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary group they are fighting. The court's account runs the other way, describing army officers and their intermediaries using Emirati companies, Emirati banks and forged paperwork to move weapons and ammunition towards Port Sudan, the seat of that same government.

The court said the conduct was liable "to harm the UAE's relations with the international community and endanger its interests", given international restrictions on arms supplies and the continuing armed conflict in Sudan, where it found the shipments were destined for one party to the fighting.

The other men jailed for life are Rashid Omar Abdul Qadir Ali, whom the court described as the main figure behind deals struck and carried out through his company; Ahmed Abdullah, also known as Abdullah Khalafallah; Ahmed Rabie Sayed Ahmed, an intermediary the court said helped obtain military approvals; Mohammed Fath Al Beik, a former adviser to the Sudanese finance minister; Othman Al Zubair, described as the Sudanese army's financial official for armament payments; and Maher Abdul Jalil, named as the network's financial arm.

Seven men, four of them also among those jailed for life, were given three-year terms for money laundering and fined Dh1 million each, according to the Wam account of the ruling. They include Khalid Yousuf Mukhtar, a former director of Salah Gosh's office at the Sudanese intelligence service, who the court said received the commission allotted to his former boss. Two other defendants, Mubarak Ali Al Sheikh and Musab Awad Al Karim Hassan, were acquitted.

According to the judgment as reported by Wam, the case turns on two linked deals. Prosecutors told the court the first was struck outside the UAE for military materiel with a declared value of $13 million, and that more than $2 million of its proceeds paid for the second, in which Goryunov-type ammunition was bought in the Emirates for onward air freight to Port Sudan. The cargo papers described it as medical equipment and supplies. Payments moved by bank transfer and in cash. Abdul Jalil handed Ali about Dh8 million in cash for one deal, the court found. Al Beik, who the court said helped get Ali's firm approved as a supplier although it did not trade in arms, received Dh146,000. Al Zubair settled sums owed through the hawala system.

Six companies were each fined Dh1 million for money laundering and had their licences and commercial registrations cancelled, with their attached funds confiscated. They are Rashed Omar Brokerage Company, Portex Trade Limited, Apollara Electronics Trading Company, Yellow Sand Trading Company, Wardat Al Masarra Trading Company and Sudamina Free Zone. The court also confiscated Dh1.545 million from seized funds, along with ammunition, mobile phones and communications equipment.

The prosecution grew out of an operation the Emirati authorities announced in April last year, when they said they had foiled an attempt to pass weapons and military materiel by unlawful means to what the UAE calls the Port Sudan Authority. Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi referred 13 defendants and six companies to trial a year later, at the end of April. When the court heard the prosecution case on 6 August, prosecutors alleged the Sudanese army had paid $10 million in commissions and a further $3 million in bribes, and said the plot "threatened to embroil the UAE in a conflict with which it had no connection".

Al Atta's standing in Sudan has risen since the period covered by the charges. A military spokesman told Reuters on 2 April that he had been appointed chief of staff of the armed forces, replacing Othman al-Hussein, a move that gave the Sovereign Council member tighter control of the military and a smaller political role.

Relations between the two countries have been broken for about 18 months. Sudan's Security and Defence Council announced in May 2025 that it was severing diplomatic ties and withdrawing its embassy and consulate general in the Emirates. The council acted after the International Court of Justice struck Sudan's genocide complicity case against the UAE off its list on 5 May, ruling that it manifestly lacked jurisdiction. The UAE foreign ministry said it did not recognise the decision to cut ties and that the Port Sudan authority did not represent what it called the legitimate government of Sudan. Abu Dhabi called the case utterly baseless.

The court ordered that all those convicted be deported from the UAE once they have served their sentences.