Dubai: As reports in the UK and Israel increasingly suggest that Israel’s spy agency, the Mossad, is the prime suspect in the assassination of Hamas leader Mahmoud Al Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel, the emirate’s police said it would be “close to impossible” to apprehend the killers if they are found in Israel.
“All elements strongly indicate the involvement of the Mossad,” Chief of Dubai Police Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan Tamim told Gulf News on Wednesday.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Wednesday said there was no evidence tying the Mossad to the crime but added that even if there were, Israel follows “a policy of ambiguity” on security operations.
Israeli daily Haaretz said the Mossad was most probably behind the crime and said the agency had used “foreign passports for operations involving assassinations of enemy targets,” in the past.
On Monday, Dubai Police released the names of 11 suspects carrying European passports. International arrest warrants were issued a day later. “The [suspects’] names and photos will be displayed in over 180 countries and they will be arrested if they are found anywhere,” Dahi said.
Six of the suspects had British passports, three Irish passports, one a German and another a French passport. Britain, France, Germany, and Ireland have said the passports appear to be fraudulent.
Britain on Wednesday said it has invited Israel’s ambassador to the Foreign Office to discuss the use of fake British passports by suspected killers.
“Given the links to Israel of a number the British nationals affected, there will be a meeting between the FCO Permanent Under Secretary and the Israeli ambassador tomorrow,” a spokesman said.
Britain’s Serious Organised Crime Agency “will lead this investigation, in close co-operation with the Emirati authorities.”
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown earlier yesterday pledged a “full investigation” into how fake British passports were linked to the killers.
“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,” he told London’s LBC Radio.
Six more suspects?
Meanwhile, the New York Times quoted an unnamed source from the UAE that six more people are involved in the crime.
According to the UK’s Times Online, the six unknown killers include a second woman who was part of the final surveillance team in the lobby of the Dubai hotel.
Dubai Police declined to comment on this on Wednesday.
