Coroner's report: Trickiest case
Forensics expert says Hamas commander's assassination was made to look like natural death
DUBAI: The director at the forensic medicine department at Dubai Police has admitted that the assassination of Hamas military leader Mahmoud Al Mabhouh was the trickiest in his 27-year-long career.
"The assassination of Al Mabhouh was one of the most challenging cases that we have faced as it was meant to look like death from natural causes during sleep - but our experience prevailed and hence the whole process of investigation was initiated," Dr Fawzi Benomran told XPRESS.
The UK-educated forensics expert who heads a seven-man team at Dubai Police, handling over 3,200 cases a year, conducted the medico-legal autopsy on Al Mabhouh, with his deputy Dr Ashraf Ebrahim Hassan.
Thorough job
Prof Benomran and his team concluded that the cause of death was "suffocation by smothering, most probably by occluding the external airways [mouth and nostrils] using a soft object, most probably a pillow".
He added that the perpetrators positioned his body in bed and covered it to appear as if he had died in his sleep. "Careful and thorough examination revealed physical signs that pointed to murder by mechanical asphyxia."
British media outfits have reported several versions of the manner in which Al Mabhouh was killed. One version, denied by Prof Benomran, has it that the assassins injected Al Mabhouh with something that induced a heart attack, while another version says he was strangled.
Dubai Police cracked the case within 24 hours, and showed extensive video footage that revealed both Al Mabhouh's and the assassins' movements.
Earlier this week, Dubai Police showed dramatic CCTV footage covering a 19-hour period, starting from the time the assassins arrived in Dubai till they fanned out to different countries. It is now believed that the hit squad was made up of 17 people, including two women. The footage shows two lookouts in sports caps trailing Al Mabhouh at Dubai International Airport and then following him to his hotel room where an execution team later arrived wearing tennis gear.
Warrants are out against all the suspects. The first wanted list of 11 suspects was topped by an alleged mastermind carrying a French passport and others travelling on European passports: six British, three Irish and a German. Two Palestinian nationals, both UAE residents, have already been arrested.
Suspicion for the murder has fallen on Mossad. But Israel's foreign minister has ruled out the involvement of their secret service agency.
"There is no reason to think that it was the Israeli Mossad, and not some other intelligence service or country up to some mischief," Avigdor Lieberman told Reuters on Wednesday.
BROWN ORDERS PROBE
On Wednesday, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown ordered a high-level probe into the use of fake British passports by the hit squad. On Monday, Dubai Police revealed passport photographs and names of 11 suspects - including six alleged British citizens they said were responsible for the killing.
"We are looking at this at this very moment. We have got to carry out a full investigation into this. The British passport is an important document that has got to be held with care," Brown told London's LBC Radio. The investigation will be carried out by UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca). According to British media reports, Soca is already in touch with Dubai Police. If the evidence incriminates Israel, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office might summon the Israeli ambassador to the UK for an explanation.
With inputs from Mazhar Farooqui and Salam Al Amir
Tennis Cover
It's now beginning to emerge why the assailants disguised themselves in tennis outfits and carried racquets when they checked into Al Bustan Rotana Hotel where the Hamas leader was staying. The hotel is a stone's throw away from the Aviation Club Tennis Centre, the hive of major tennis tournaments in Dubai.
Just three days before the January 19 assassination, it hosted a major junior's championship.
With hectic preparations under way for the upcoming Barclays Dubai Women's Tennis Championships, the place was agog with tennis fever when the hit squad tracked Al Mabhouh to the hotel. Experts reckon the tennis gear provided the hit squad the perfect cover as the sight of people carrying racquets and wearing tennis outfits is not uncommon in the vicinity.
