Britain to investigate on fradulent Passport use issue in Dubai

Investigators from Britain's Serious Organized Crimes Agency have arrived in Israel to interview dual nationals whose names were used on forged passports by the assassins of a Hamas commander in Dubai last month, the Independent reported on Saturday.

The British agency said Friday that arrangements were already being made to speak to the six British-Israeli dual nationals whose names were among those used by the alleged hit squad.
   
Hamas military commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was killed last month in his hotel room in what Dubai police have said they are near certain was a hit by Israel's Mossad spy agency. Police said the killers traveled to the Gulf Arab emirate using forged European and Australian passports.


Australia on Saturday said it is not satisfied with its Israeli envoy's explanation about the fraudulent use of Australian passports in the assassination of a Hamas commander in Dubai last month, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Rudd said his government had to "proceed very carefully" in the investigation because of its complex security nature.

Israel's ambassador to Australia, Yuval Rotem, was summoned on Thursday for an urgent meeting with Foreign Minister Stephen Smith.

"When it comes to Australian passport fraud or the use and abuse of Australian passports, this government has an absolutely hard line on defending the integrity of our passport system because millions of the traveling public depend on that each year," Rudd told reporters in Adelaide on Saturday.

"That is why the foreign minister has called in the Israeli ambassador and asked for an explanation. "Thus far we are not satisfied with that explanation," Rudd said.

Meanwhile, Dubai police said on Friday they have DNA proof of the identity of at least one of the killers of senior Hamas strongman Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in the emirate country last month.

"We have DNA evidence ... from the crime scene. The DNA of the criminals is there," Dubai Police Chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim said on the Arab satellite television Al-Arabiya.

He said police had "categorical DNA proof on one of the assassins" and fingerprint evidence from several other suspects, providing "100 percent" proof of their identities.

Dubai said it was seeking at least 26 people it suspectd of involvement in the assassination in January.

Last week Interpol added 11 suspected assassins to their most wanted list, all of whom were apparently using forged passports.

The individuals who were charged by Dubai police as responsible for the killing of Mabhouh were tagged with "Red Notices," according to the Interpol's official website.

The website also specifies that Interpol chose to publish the photos of the suspected assassins since the identities the perpetrators allegedly used were fake, using fraudulent passports to aid them in accomplishing their aim.

Also, Dubai police chief ahi Khalfan Tamim said Interpol should issue a warrant to help locate and arrest the head of Israel's spy agency Mossad if the organization was responsible for the killing of a Hamas militant in Dubai.

Meanwhile, a Haaretz probe discovered that the passport photographs of the agents who assassinated Mabhouh in Dubai were doctored so the agents would not be identified.

The discovery casts doubt on claims that the espionage agency that carried out last month's hit on the senior Hamas operative committed grave errors.

Various features of the people in the photographs, such as eye color or the line of a lip, were changed - slightly enough so as not arouse suspicion at passport control, but still enough that the real agent could not be recognized.