An EU diplomat said that Israel’s alleged role in the killing of a Hamas member in Dubai on 19 January and the assassins’ suspected use of fake EU passports are believed to damage Israel’s ties with the EU.
 
Dubai police said that at least 11 suspects in Mahmoud al-Mabhouh’s killing used altered German, French, Irish and British passports. Police Chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim added that the killers were already staying in Dubai for almost a year before the murder.

Meanwhile, a top Emirati official advised European investigators to initiate a full-scale probe on how EU passports were doctored by a gang accused of killing al-Mabhouh. Earlier, Tamim stated that the suspected assassins also used foreign mobile phone cards while contacting a command centre in Austria to avoid from being traced.

Anwar Gargash, UAE’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, informed that the country was deeply troubled that the alleged assassins used expertly tampered passports from countries that do not require UAE visa. British officials however believe that the fake British passports used by the killers were secretly copied at Tel Aviv Airport.

According to reports, it is believed that Israeli immigration officers photocopied the passport numbers of several travelling EU citizens to create the fake passports. The suspects then used the fraudulent documents bearing their own pictures, although with the names and details of several innocent EU nationals.

Experts told that the fraud is relatively simple to accomplish, with all six UK passports used by the killers not biometric. In addition to the UK passport, the identities of Irish, German and French citizens were also used.