An alleged Mossad spy from Israel wanted in connection with the hit-squad slaying of a Hamas agent in Dubai has been arrested in Poland, officials said on Saturday.
The man, using the name Uri Brodsky, is suspected of working for Mossad in Germany and helping to issue a fake German passport to a member of the Mossad operation that allegedly killed Hamas agent Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai in January, a spokesman for the German federal prosecutor’s office told reporters.
Brodsky was arrested early this month upon his arrival in Poland because of a European arrest warrant issued by Germany, which is now seeking his extradition, the spokesman said, declining to be named in line with department policy.
The spokesman had no estimate of how long it could take for Brodsky to be extradited from Poland to Germany, saying “the matter is now in the hands of the Polish authorities.”
If Brodsky agrees, the extradition could take a few days, but that isn’t likely, the spokesman said.
In Warsaw, Monika Lewandowska, a spokeswoman for Polish prosecutors, confirmed that the suspect, identified only as Uri B., was arrested at the city’s international airport on June 4.
She told reporters that the arrest warrant was made “in connection with the murder of a Hamas member in Dubai.”
The suspect appeared before a Polish court on June 6, and was ordered to remain in temporary arrest for up to 40 days, she said.
In Israel, the Foreign Ministry said without elaborating that it was aware of the man’s fate.
“At the moment, we’re looking into that like any other Israeli who has been arrested, and he’s getting consular treatment,” spokesman Andy David said.
Police in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) said the elaborate hit squad linked to the slaying of al-Mabhouh — one of the founders of Hamas’ military wing — involved some 25 suspects, most of them carrying fake passports from European nations.
Dubai’s police chief, Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan Tamim, has said he is nearly “100 percent” certain that Mossad, Israel’s spy agency, masterminded the killing.
The brazen assault in a luxury hotel and its alleged perpetrators were widely captured by security cameras. Some footage, released by Dubai’s police, showed alleged members of the hit squad disguised as tourists.
At the time, Israel said it didn’t know who was responsible for the killing but welcomed it, saying al-Mabhouh was a key link in smuggling weapons to Gaza and a possible middleman with Israel’s archenemy, Iran.
The German news weekly Der Spiegel reported that the arrest in Poland already has led to some diplomatic friction. The Israeli embassy has urged Polish authorities not to extradite Brodsky, the magazine reports in its issue to be published today.
Germany’s Foreign Ministry had no comment on the case and referred to an ongoing judicial investigation by the federal prosecutor’s office.
After a German passport was used by a person linked to the Dubai slaying, the prosecutor’s office in February started investigating a possible connection to a foreign intelligence agency.
Authorities in Cologne had issued a passport to a man named Michael Bodenheimer. A man using that name was among the assassins who killed the Hamas operative, Dubai police said.
In February, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle urged a thorough investigation and said German authorities would do everything possible to support their counterparts in the UAE.
If Brodsky’s extradition goes through, however, it could put the government in Berlin — a staunch Israeli ally — in a difficult diplomatic position.
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