U.S. authorities on Monday said they had not sought the arrest of the lawyer who acted on behalf of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, contradicting the United Arab Emirates’ reasoning for the American’s capture. On Saturday, civil-rights lawyer and U.S. citizen Asim Ghafoor was sentenced to three years in prison for tax evasion and money laundering after he was arrested at Dubai airport on Thursday while traveling to a wedding in Turkey. Ghafoor says the charges were false and that he didn’t even know he’d been convicted in absentia at some point in the past. The UAE made it seem as though his arrest had been part of an operation with the U.S. to tackle “transnational crimes,” adding that American authorities had asked the Emirati to help look into Ghafoor’s finances. But the State Department says it had “not sought the arrest of Mr. Ghafoor” and directed further questions on the matter to the DOJ.