Dubai: Dubai Public Prosecution has issued international arrest warrants against the suspected assassins of Hamas commander Mahmoud Al Mabhouh on charges of premeditated murder.
Al Mabhouh was killed in his Dubai hotel room on January 19. An assassination squad of 11 members is suspected, including British, Irish, German and French passport holders.
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Dubai Attorney General Essam Eisa Al Humaidan said the warrants were issued as per the UAE laws, as well as the International Judicial Cooperation Law in criminal issues and agreements linking the UAE and the countries of the suspects.
He said the UAE has signed the judicial cooperation agreement with many countries, indicating that this will allow it to request extradition of the suspects wherever they hide.
European officials have however indicated that the suspects were not citizens of their states and were using forged passports.
‘Forged passports'
The Irish, British and German governments have officially confirmed this. The Irish government said that passport holders cited as suspects "do not exist".
"We are unable to identify any of those three individuals as being genuine Irish citizens. Ireland has issued no passports in those names," the Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement to The Associated Press.
Ireland and Germany say the passports used were forged because they have the wrong number of digits and contain no letters.
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Unnamed British government sources said British involvement could not be confirmed, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Leak from Syria
Meanwhile, a security source has told Gulf News that information about the victim's whereabouts "was leaked by a source in Syria".
Dubai Police Chief Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan Tamim hinted earlier that some of those involved in the assassination could be from Al Mabhouh's "group", apparently referring to Hamas.
Al Jazeera however reported that one of the two Palestinian suspects being held in Dubai works for Palestinian security services under the Fatah controlled Palestinian National Authority. Hamas has therefore pointed a finger at its rival Fatah for Al Mabhouh's killing.
It also appears that the killers used a stolen identity for at least one of the assassins. A resident of Israel who shares the alleged name of one of the British assassins appeared in Israeli media yesterday speaking in British accented English and denying any involvement in the assassination.
"I'm looking into what I can do to try to sort things out and clear my name," said Melvyn Adam Mildiner.
— With additional inputs from Siham Al Najami, Staff Reporter
