The intrigue deepens in the killing of senior Hamas commander Mahmoud Al Mabhouh with one of the 18 suspected assassins, who went by the name Michael Bodenheimer, left his traces in Cologne, Germany and Herzliya, Israel.
SPIEGEL Online reports that a man had approached the Cologne citizen registry office in early summer 2009 and had introduced himself as Michael Bodenheimer, requesting for a national identity card and a German passport. He identified himself as an Israeli, informed officials at the registry office that he had moved to Germany in mid-June. The papers and documents provided by him as proof to his claims included an Israeli passport, issued in Tel Aviv in November 2008, and the marriage certificate of his parents, who had fled Germany to escape the Nazis.
According to the Article 116 of the German constitution, "former citizens of Germany, and there descendants, are entitled to German citizenship."
The man picked up his passport and the national identity card on June 18, 2009. Eight months later, Michael Bodenheimer was identified by Dubai Police as one of the 18 suspected killers of Al Mabhouh, according to the online report.
The Cologne prosecutor's office initiated proceedings alleging document falsification. The Federal Prosecutor's Office is currently pondering taking over the case because of the involvement of foreign agent activity.
SPIEGEL Online in its review of the information provided by Michael Bodenheimer discovered that when he applied for his passport in Cologne in 2009, he declared an apartment in Cologne, on Eigelstein Strasse, as his new address, which is one of Cologne’s poorer districts where tenants stay for brief periods of time.
Bodenheimer also declared in Cologne that his place and date of birth are July 15, 1967, Liman in Israel. Yet according to SPIGEL Online, this information could not be confirmed with other residents. The Israeli address that Bodenheimer provided is Yad Harutzim Street No. 7, in the business district of Herzliya.
It is an address of a modern building that listed on its directory board in the reception area the name of one Michael Budenheimer and a company called “Top Office”.
But after contacting the firm and asking about Michael Budenheimer, both names were removed from the directory board a couple of days later, according to SPIGEL Online.
