Transfer of suspected Israeli spy upheld

Warsaw: A Polish appeal court has upheld a decision to extradite a suspected Israeli spy to Germany in connection with the killing of a Hamas leader in Dubai in January, his lawyer said yesterday.

Uri Brodsky was detained at Warsaw airport in June by Polish police after Germany issued a European arrest warrant for the person responsible for fraudulently obtaining a German passport. He then appealed against a ruling authorising his extradition.

"The appeals court in Warsaw upheld the original court decision," lawyer Anna Mika-Kopec told reporters. Brodsky will be sent to Germany within 10 days but he may only be put on trial for forgery, not for espionage, she said.

The suspect left the closed courtroom session with his head covered even before the verdict had been announced. The German passport is believed to have been used by a member of a hit squad that Dubai says assassinated Hamas commander Mahmoud Al Mabhouh on behalf of Israel.