Dubai murder
Berlin, July 7, IRNA — A Polish court ruled on Wednesday that an alleged Mossad operative linked to the Dubai slaying of a Hamas leader should be extradited to Germany, press reports said here on Wednesday.
Uri Brodsky, an Israeli citizen, is accused of having helped to forge a German passport used in the January assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.
Brodsky covered his face from reporters as he walked to the courtroom,
escorted by seven anti-terrorist policemen.
The proceedings were closed to the media.
Polish prosecutors had petitioned the court to extradite the Mossad agent to Germany where he is wanted for his logistic role in the Dubai assassination.
The suspect can be extradited within 10 days if he does not challenge the move.
Israel had reportedly pressured the Polish government to prevent the extradition of the Mossad operative to Germany.
Polish judicial officials have stressed that prosecutors were not taking
politics into consideration, but were acting in accordance with procedures after Germany issued a European arrest warrant on the alleged Mossad agent.
Germany filed for the suspect’s extradition after he was arrested at Warsaw airport on June 4.
The Hamburg-based news magazine Der Spiegel reported that the suspect’s
arrest was not for taking part in the Dubai murder but for aiding another agent to obtain a German passport fraudulently in the spring of 2009.
The charge for this would be spying on behalf of Mossad, the notorious Israeli intelligence service.
According to the paper, the Mossad agent applied for the passport in the name of Michael Bodenheimer at residents’ registration office in the city of Cologne, although he was not Bodenheimer.
The passport had been used by a member of the Mossad death squad to enter Dubai for the killing and quickly depart again, according to Spiegel.
Mossad killer squads have in the past used German passports for secret
operations although some of them had been forged, according to press
reports.
Germany and Israel have a very deep military and intelligence cooperation
whose details remain highly secretive to the German public.