Australia police head to Israel over Dubai murder
SYDNEY (Agencies)
Australia said Tuesday it will send police to Israel to investigate how Australian passports were used in an elaborate assassination plot in which a senior Hamas figure was killed in Dubai.
A team from the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Australian Passport Office would travel to Israel to conduct enquiries into passport offences following the murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.
“(We) don’t wish to prejudice the investigation by going into any more detail,” a spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said.
“Australia expects the Israeli government, its officials and its agencies, to cooperate fully with the Australian investigation.”
Israel’s Mossad spy agency is widely suspected of carrying out the slaying, though Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement.
Mabhouh, a founder of the military wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, was found dead in his Dubai hotel room on Jan. 20. Police say he had been drugged then suffocated.
Dubai police say 26 suspects used fake British, Irish, French and Australian passports of real people.
The Australian newspaper said police will interview three Australians living in Israel — Nicole McCabe, Adam Korman and Joshua Bruce — whose passports were among the 26 foreign travel documents used by the assassins.
Australia’s spy agency ASIO is also involved in the investigation, said a spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. She did not say whether ASIO officers were travelling to Israel.
Australia has condemned the misuse of its passports and Foreign Minister Stephen Smith called Israeli Ambassador Yuval Rotem late last month to discuss Canberra’s “gravest” concerns about the matter.
The government has made contact with the three Australians concerned and is offering them support and assistance, the foreign affairs spokeswoman said.
Source: Alarabiya.net | Middle East
