Dubai, February 18: Dubai police chief Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan said he was 99 percent sure Israel’s notorious Mossad intelligence service was behind the murder of Hamas officer Mahmud al-Mabhuh, The National newspaper reported on Thursday.
“Our investigations reveal that Mossad is involved in the murder of Mabhuh. It is 99 percent, if not 100 percent that Mossad is standing behind the murder,” the Abu Dhabi-based English-language daily quoted Khalfan as saying.
“Dubai police has more evidence, apart from the tapes and photos that were revealed earlier,” Khalfan said, quoted in Al-Bayan. “The coming days will carry more surprises which will leave no room for doubt.”
He insisted the European passports used by the team which allegedly murdered Mahmud al-Mabhuh last month were not fakes and that Dubai immigration officers were “trained” by European security experts to spot such documents.
“This training qualifies immigration officers to spot fake passports. They applied these procedures at Dubai airport when the alleged (assassins) entered the country,” he said. “No forgery was found in those passports.”
He described the alleged Mossad assassins of Mabhuh as “stupid” because their moves were “traced second-by-second” by security cameras.
With Dubai police’s disclosure of the names and photos of the alleged hit team, fingers have been pointed at Israel’s notorious spy agency Mossad and its agents accused of using fake passports of European citizens.
Six British passport holders, three Irish, including a woman, a German and a man with a French passport made up the alleged hit team.
Khalfan said on Monday that Dubai police were hunting the 11 suspects, showing videos and photos revealing their moves in the hotel and their departure from Dubai.
The alleged assassins arrived in Dubai on January 19, a day after Mabhuh, 50, who lives in Damascus, arrived in the emirate. They left the United Arab Emirates on January 20, the day the Hamas officer was found dead.
—Agencies