The hit squad who killed a Hamas leader in Dubai six weeks ago
injected him with a strong sedative before suffocating him in his hotel room,
post-mortem results have revealed.
Dubai Police said yesterday that toxicology tests on Mahmoud al
Mabhouh revealed traces of succinylcholine, a fast-acting muscle relaxant that
causes temporary paralysis and would have made it impossible for him to struggle
against his assassins.
The latest revelations about the killing – widely attributed to
Israel’s Mossad spy agency – came as Dubai Police announced that European
passports would come under greater scrutiny by immigration officials.
The assassins entered the UAE on forged passports belonging to
four European countries and Australia. Many of the identities they assumed
belonged to dual nationals who live in Israel.
Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim, the head of Dubai Police, said “new
technologies” would be introduced at airports and border crossings to examine
European passports and ensure their authenticity. These would be devices to
detect sophisticated forgeries.
Meanwhile in Israel, Benjamin Ben Eliezer, a government minister,
said the operation against al Mabhouh “was not a failure” and that mounting
criticism in Israel and internationally was unjustified.
Mr Ben Eliezer, a member of Israel’s inner security cabinet, made
his remarks as two separate investigations, by Britain and Australia, threatened
to further embarrass Israel by tying Mossad to the misuse of the two countries’
passports.
ritish detectives in Tel Aviv said over the
next few days they would interview six dual nationals whose names were used by
the assassins, while Australia’s security services were reported to be in the
advanced stages of an investigation into three Australian-Israelis they believe
have been working for Mossad.
Al Mabhouh’s murder in a Dubai hotel room on January 19 is
believed to have been carried out by a large assassination squad travelling on
fraudulently obtained or forged passports from Britain, Ireland, France, Germany
and Australia.
The number of suspects increased to 27 yesterday as police
revealed another person had been identified, though they did not disclose
details. Two Palestinians are also in detention – one of whom is said by Dubai
police to have a clear connection to the assassins.
The drug used by the hit squad would have ensured al Mabhouh
remained conscious as he was suffocated.
“This substance is usually very difficult to trace as it
dissolves into the body and turns to hormones which already exist naturally in
the human body,” said Maj Gen Khamis al Mazeina, deputy head of Dubai Police.
“But because it was injected in substantial amounts, the full quantity did not
dissolve and we were able to trace it.”
Hamas officials had earlier said al Mabhouh
had survived a previous assassination attempt in Dubai last year, but Gen al
Mazeina denied the claims.
In announcing new border controls, Gen Tamim said: “European
passports, previous to the al Mabhouh case, did not undergo heavy scrutiny, as
we knew that they are very difficult to forge and they enjoyed high level of
credibility, but now they will be heavily examined.”
He said he hoped to co-ordinate with European countries to ensure
that fraudulent passports would be detected more efficiently, including by
accessing a database to verify passport numbers without infringing on travellers’
personal information.
Gen Tamim said police would also train passport control officers
at the airport to better identify potential Mossad agents to prevent them from
entering Dubai.
“Among the things we will train our people is to identify Israeli
names, accents as well as features,” he said. “Israel has proved that it is a
country that does not respect laws and always violates others’ sovereignty,
including what it calls friendly nations, and we need to make sure that they do
not violate our sovereignty.”
Gen Tamim said that, although the misuse of European passports
had undermined the credibility of these passports, visa procedures for Europeans
would not be tightened.
Gen Tamim, who has said he is “99 per cent certain” that Mossad
carried out the hit, called the spy agency a “dinosaur with old-fashioned
thinking” because it had failed to take into account the role of modern
technology.
Yesterday, in remarks that hinted at a growing defensiveness on
the part of the Israeli government, Mr Ben Eliezer rejected the growing
criticism surrounding the killing.
Several Israeli commentators have suggested that the drip-drip of
revelations tying Israel to the affair, and the threat to which the 26 agents
and the Israeli citizens whose identities they assumed have been exposed, were a
price not worth paying.
Mr Ben Eliezer responded: “What is there to criticise? Right now
all I’m interested in from this tsunami is one simple thing. Is he dead or
alive? And the answer to that is clear.”
He added: “The [Hamas] organisation knows one thing – there is no
one who cannot be caught up with or who cannot be reached. For me, this is
deterrence.”
The Israeli government’s discomfort, however, may grow in the
coming days.
Two British investigators from the Serious Organised Crime Agency
(Soca) have arrived in Israel to begin interviews with six of the 12
British-Israeli dual nationals whose names were found on forged passports used
by the hit squad.
A British Embassy spokesman, Rafi Shamir, said the six would be
interviewed as witnesses to a crime and would not be questioned as suspects.
A Soca official said Israel had been informed and had “no issue”
with the interviews.
The six Britons – Paul Keeley, James Clarke, Michael Barney,
Jonathan Graham, Melvyn Mildiner and Stephen Hodes – will be interviewed at the
embassy in Tel Aviv when they come in to receive their new passports. All have
claimed that their identities were stolen.
Mr Keeley’s wife, Sima, told The National yesterday that the
family had only learnt of the British detectives’ arrival that morning, after
seeing reports in the local media.
“The police haven’t been in contact yet but we’re expecting their
call soon,” she said.
Although yesterday was a normal working day in Israel, the
embassy observes the British weekend and was not due to open again until today.
Mrs Keeley, who lives with her husband in a
small coastal community in northern Israel, said her husband was still “very
upset” about the misuse of his passport. They were hoping to learn more about
what had happened when he met the investigators, she said.
Mr Shamir said the other six British-Israelis – whose identities
were revealed only last week – would be interviewed at a later date.
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