UAE | Crime
Britain says it had no prior knowledge about fake passports
The Foreign Office issued a "strong rebuttal" of a story in the Daily Mail, which quoted an unnamed member of Israel's Mossad spy agency as saying London was tipped-off hours before the killing.
- Staff Report
- Published: 00:00 February 20, 2010
Dubai: Britain denied on Friday suggestions that it knew about the killing of a Hamas commander in advance and that fake British passports would be used.
The Foreign Office issued a "strong rebuttal" of a story in the Daily Mail, which quoted an unnamed member of Israel's Mossad spy agency as saying London was tipped-off hours before the killing.
"Any suggestion that we knew anything about the murder in Dubai before it happened, including about the misuse of British passports, is completely untrue," a Foreign Office spokesman said.
"As we have said already, the Dubai authorities told us about the role of British passports on February 15, several hours before their press conference.
"We told them the following day that the passports used were fraudulent.
"The head of the Dubai police has also made clear that embassies were not contacted until shortly before the identity of the suspects was revealed."
The Daily Mail cited an Israeli agent as claiming that Britain's Foreign Office was contacted hours before the murder of Hamas commander Mahmoud Al Mabhouh in the Bustan Rotana hotel on January 20.
The tip-off did not say who the target would be or even where the hit squad would be in action, said the daily.
Briefing
The Mail quoted a British security source who met the Mossad agent as saying he was a serving Israeli agent. "He says the British government was told very, very briefly before the operation what was going to happen.
"There was no British involvement and they didn't know the name of the target. But they were told these people were travelling on UK passports," the unnamed British source said. The security source told the paper that the tip-off was not a request for permission to use British passports but a "courtesy call" to let the security services know about the operation.
The Mossad official told the paper that said Israeli intelligence chiefs understand British authorities will have to "slap them on the wrist" and added: "The British government has to be seen to be going through the motions."
The Israeli's claims contradict Foreign Office assertions that the UK did not know of the affair until shortly before the Dubai authorities went public over the assassination earlier this week.
A Foreign Office spokesman told the paper that it was ‘not correct' to claim that Britain knew in advance about the passports.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband called the abuse of identity documents "outrageous" and demanded that Tel Aviv cooperate fully.
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