Dubai's police chief said on Monday the suspects in a Hamas chief's assassination in the emirate were hiding in Israel to avoid arrest and urged the Jewish state to wage its wars at home.
Mahmud al-Mabhuh, a founder of the military wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, was found dead in his Dubai hotel room on Jan. 20. Police on Sunday said he had been drugged then suffocated.
“I say [the suspects] are in Israel. Israel says they are in Israel,” police chief Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan told a news conference in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) capital. “If they stay in Israel, they won't be arrested.”
But “eventually they will leave” and can then be detained, he added, referring to a list of suspects passed on to Interpol.
Twelve British, six Irish, four French, three Australian and one German passports were used by 26 named suspects, Dubai police said, adding that they had fled the emirate on flights to Europe and Asia.
Police said they were convinced the Israeli spy agency Mossad carried out the Cold War-style hit.
Khalfan called on Israel to fight its conflicts on its own soil.
“When [Israel] has a conflict, let it wage the war on its own land, not on our land,” he said.
In comments published in newspapers on Monday, Khalfan said a 27th suspect had been identified, also traveling on an European passport but this time unspecified.
Meanwhile, Australian police and passport officials were being dispatched to Israel to meet three dual Australian-Israeli nationals whose passports were used in the slaying of al-Mabhuh, a spokeswoman for Australia's department of foreign affairs said yesterday.
The spokeswoman, speaking from Canberra, had no details on when the team would arrive in Israel. She spoke on customary condition of anonymity.
Last week, the Australian government summoned Israeli Ambassador Yuval Rotem for an explanation of the passport scandal. Afterward, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he was “not satisfied” with the Israeli government's answer to “the use and abuse” of Australian passports.
Britain has already sent a special police investigator to Israel to meet eight dual nationals whose passports were used in the slaying.
Israel has sought to play down the row, saying there was no hard proof of its involvement. Officials have refused to confirm or deny the reports, but Israeli media see the killing as Mossad's work.
In Vienna, an interior ministry spokesman said police had passed on to Dubai the results of an investigation into the suspected use of Austrian mobile phone cards by the killers.
“We have completed our inquiries and sent the results to the Dubai authorities,” the Austrian spokesman said.
Press reports have suggested that between seven and 11 Austrian phone cards were used by Mabhuh's killers.
Dubai has also asked the FBI to look into US-issued pre-paid credit cards used by suspects in the killing of the Hams commander, a UAE newspaper said yesterday.
“Thirteen of the 27 suspects used prepaid MasterCards issued by MetaBank, a regional American bank, to purchase plane tickets and book hotel rooms,” the National newspaper said, citing Dubai police.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
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