Friday 5 March 2010

Dubai Police Chief Challenges Israel: I'll Resign if DNA Doesn't Match Suspects

Hanan Awarekeh

05/03/2010 The investigation into the assassination of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh is still ongoing in Dubai.

Al-Mabhouh was found dead in his hotel room on January 19 in Dubai where police says he was killed in a Mossad assassination involving at least 27 suspects who entered the emirate on a variety of passports.

Dubai Police Chief Dhahi Khalfan on Friday addressed reports that his men had obtained the DNA of part of the members of the hit squad and vowed to resign from his post if this claim proves to be false.

"I challenge Israel to bring the suspects there in order to undergo a DNA test and compare them with the samples we have," he said in an interview to the UAE-based al-Khaleej newspaper. "If it turns out that the results do not match, I will resign. You can lie about anything, but not about DNA," he added.

Khalfan recently challenged Mossad chief Meir Dagan to own up to the assassination. In Friday's interviewed he reiterated that he hopes "the Israeli official comes out and takes responsibility for the crime, instead of avoiding it in front of the media.

"If al-Mabhouh was a terrorist as they claim, then what can be said about the Israelis who carried out this crime on someone else's land?"

Meanwhile, in an interview with the al-Jazeera network, to be broadcast in full on Friday, Khalfan said that if he chose to, he would be able to "infiltrate Dagan's office".

He also repeated accusations that one of al-Mabhouh's aides gave the assassins information on his whereabouts which enabled them to carry out the operation.

Last week, Dubai said that it would ban Israelis with dual nationality from entering the country. Khalfan said that authorities in the Gulf emirate would be on the lookout for “Jews.”

The United Arab Emirates will “deny entry to anyone suspected of having Israeli citizenship,” he said, adding that Israelis with dual nationality would be denied entry.

Al Jazeera television reported on Wednesday that Khalfan "said he would ask the Dubai prosecutor to issue arrest warrants for ... Netanyahu and the head of Mossad, Meir Dagan."

Khalfan has said he is 100 percent sure that Israeli agents were involved in the killing of al-Mabhouh. He added that Mossad had "insulted" Dubai and Western countries whose fraudulent passports were used by suspects in the assassination.

Members of the hit squad used fraudulent passports from Britain, Ireland, Germany, France and Australia. The passport abuse has drawn criticism from the European Union, and some of the governments involved have summoned the Israeli ambassadors to their countries to protest.

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