[ 16/02/2010 - 11:07 AM ]
DUBAI, (PIC)-- The police in the Emirate of Dubai has announced on Monday the arrest of two Palestinian citizens, including an officer in the Ramallah-based PA authority, involved in the killing of Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh last month.
Eleven more European nationals, including six Britons, three Irish, one French, and one German were also accused of masterminding and executing the assassination.
"Soon we will issue arrest warrants against the 11 European suspects who used sophisticated technology to kill the victim. However, we don’t rule out the possibility that the Mossad (Israeli external intelligence apparatus) is behind the plan, but we shall wait till we arrest and interrogate the suspects to know who was really behind the assassination", said Dhahi Khalfan, the chief of police in Dubai.
(From left to right, top row): Evan Dennings of Irish nationality, Gail Folliard of Irish nationality, James Leonard Clarke of British nationality, Jonathan Louis Graham of British nationality;
(From left to right, middle row) Michael Bodenheimer of German nationality, Paul John Keeley of British nationality, Michael Lawrence Barney of British nationality;
(From left to right, bottom row) Peter Elvinger of French nationality, Kevin Daveron of Irish nationality, Melvyn Adam Mildiner of British nationality, Stephen Daniel Hodes of British nationality.
He explained that the assassins arrived to the Emirate in three groups and left it within 24 hours, adding that passports of the killers were all genuine until otherwise proven.
He also revealed that the two arrested Palestinians were suspected of providing logistic support to the assassins identifying one of the Palestinians as a police officer in the Ramallah authority who had met with the leader of the group whose name is Peter, a French national.
The plan:
The Dubai police exhibited photos captured by the surveillance cameras installed in and around the hotel where the crime occurred, saying that the assassins succeeded in decoding the door key of Mabhouh's room, while he was outside, and waited for him inside it before they suffocated and killed him.
The police added that the suspects left some medicines next to Mabhouh's body in an attempt to deceive the police investigators, confirming that the plan was cooked in the room of Peter who booked a room adjacent to that of Mabhouh.
The police also revealed that the assassin group used hi-tech communication tools that couldn’t be intercepted by the Emirates communication channels, and they paid in cash for the hotel instead of credit cards.
"We know each one of them and where they live, but we will chase them through international channels after we published their names and photos", underlined Khalfan.
Hamas's reaction:
For its part, Hamas's political leadership asserted that the involvement of two Palestinians, including an officer in Ramallah authority, confirms that the security coordination between the PA and the Israeli occupation has "gone beyond borders".
"Initial information revealed by the police in Dubai proves that Abbas's security departments were extending the security coordination with the Israelis outside the Palestinian borders", said Dr. Ismail Radwan, one of Hamas political leaders in Gaza, urging the Ramallah authority to explain the involvement of its security officers in the assassination.
Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri, the spokesman of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, hailed the efforts of Dubai police in identifying the killers, describing the revelation by Dubai police about the involvement of the Ramallah security apparatuses in the killing as "serious".
But Abu Zuhri confirmed that regardless of the nationality of the killers, Hamas still believes the Israeli Mossad was the party that masterminded the assassination of Mabhouh using a number of its agents to carry out the crime.
MP Dr. Salah Al-Bardawil, another Hamas political leader in the Gaza Strip, asserted that the burden now is on Fatah faction to explain its stand regarding the findings of the Dubai police, stressing that the two Palestinian agents should be prosecuted.
He also urged the Dubai police to coordinate with Hamas Movement and to furnish it with the information surrounding the crime, explaining that Hamas Movement was the first party concerned about Mabhouh, and has the right to prosecute his killers.
Moreover, Bardawil invited the countries whose nationals were involved in the killing to surrender them to the authorities in Dubai so that justice could take its course.
According to Dubai police, the two Palestinians escaped to Jordan immediately after the crime, but they were arrested there and turned over to Dubai police.
[ 17/02/2010 - 11:18 AM ]
BEIRUT, (PIC)-- Osama Hamdan, the representative of Hamas Movement in Lebanon, has charged that the Israeli foreign intelligence known as the Mossad is the real culprit in the assassination of Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh, the prominent commander in the Qassam Brigades the armed wing of Hamas, in Dubai last month.
Hamdan told Al-Jazeera TV network on Tuesday night that carrying genuine European passports did not indicate anything as far as the suspects are concerned.
He explained that Israel could forge such documents or obtain them through security agreements with the concerned countries.
He recalled that the Mossad elements, who tried to assassinate Hamas leader Khaled Mishaal in Jordan in 1997, were carrying Canadian passports.
Dubai police announced the names of 11 suspects, all holders of European passports, in the assassination of Mabhouh who was killed in his hotel room in Dubai.
Hamdan asked Dubai to let his Movement take part in the investigations, denying that such a request would mean interference in its security affairs, stressing his Movement's keenness on Arab security.
The Hamas leader said that the presence of two Palestinian suspects in the case should be followed up closely, but should not deviate the investigation away from the fact that the Mossad is the real culprit.
He concluded saying that the Israeli government shoulders the responsibility for the assassination.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
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