Polish court orders extradition of Mossad agent linked to Mabhouh killing in Dubai

Warsaw: A Polish court decided to extradite an alleged Israeli Mossad agent to Germany over claims he has links to the January killing of a Hamas leader, despite Israel’s calls for him to go home.

“The court has decided to hand over Uri Brodsky to German authorities for judicial procedures there,” Warsaw regional court Judge Tomasz Talkiewicz said.

“The court did not decide whether Brodsky committed the crime for which he is under investigation, the court only checked whether the extradition request fulfils the formal requirements and whether the suspect is correctly identified,” the judge said.

The court said Brodsky had three days to appeal the decision, but the suspect’s lawyer said it was not clear whether an appeal would be launched.

“My client can be handed over to German judicial authorities within the framework of judicial procedures over the following matters: falsification of documents and using false documents,” Brodsky’s lawyer Krzysztof Stepinski told reporters.

“But the court did not take into consideration the German extradition request over participation in activities for foreign spy services,” Stepinski said.

Seven masked and heavily armed Polish anti-terrorist police officers escorted Brodsky into the Warsaw court for the hearing behind closed doors.

According to German weekly Der Spiegel, which broke the story on its website, Brodsky was arrested at Warsaw airport on June 4 on suspicion of obtaining a German passport by fraudulent means.

The passport was used by people involved in the January 20 assassination of Mahmoud Al Mabhouh, Hamas Commander.

The Dubai hit sparked a diplomatic crisis for Israel after the team of assassins — widely believed to be from the Israeli spy agency Mossad — was found to have used 26 forged passports from Britain, France, Germany, Ireland and Australia.