Hamas murder mystery takes European twist
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It first sounded like something straight from a James Bond movie but has turned into a case better suited to Sherlock Holmes. The murder of a Hamas official in Dubai now involves the Irish, British, German and French governments, the Israeli secret service, and several very puzzled suspects.
“I went to bed with pneumonia and woke up a murderer,” Paul Keeley, one of the suspected members of an 11-person hit squad, told the Jerusalem Post.
Michael Lawrence Barney, another suspect, told the British Daily Mail “I’m not exactly spy material,” especially since undergoing a quadruple heart bypass.
Dubai police released the names and passport photos of the 11 suspects following the January murder of Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who allegedly played a key role in smuggling Iranian-funded arms to Gaza-based Islamists
The suspects include six Britons, three Irish, one German and one French. Two Palestinians have also been extradited from Jordan to Dubai over the murder.
But several of the suspects have spoken to the media and claim to not have ever travelled to Dubai. While Britain, France and Ireland all claim the passports used were fraudulent.
The recent revelations have left fingers pointed squarely at Mossad, Israel’s secret service. Mossad has been accused in the past of issuing fake passports to hit squads, most notably in 1997 when agents entered Jordan with Canadian passports in a failed assassination attempt on Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal.
"There is no reason to think that it was the Israeli Mossad, and not some other intelligence service or country up to some mischief," Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Army Radio.
But Hamas maintains that Israel is responsible and has vowed revenge, while Dubai police are yet to rule out Mossad involvement.
