UK passport owners in Dubai assassination case to meet agents
UK agents are due to meet six dual British-Israeli nationals whose passports were used in the assassination of a Hamas leader in Dubai.
The genuine British passport holders will be interviewed at the UK embassy as potential witnesses to a crime, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) said.
In total, 12 fake British passports were used in the hit, and officers will meet the remaining six people who had their identities cloned in the near future.
A Soca spokesman said: “We are arranging to speak to the six genuine passport holders who are resident in Israel as potential witnesses to a crime. Those meetings will take place in the British embassy.”
He said the Israeli authorities had been informed and had “no issue” with the meetings taking place.
Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was killed in a Dubai hotel room last month.
Police in the Gulf state identified a dozen British passports which were used in the assassination plot, after initially homing in on just six.
The Soca spokesman said the agency anticipated similar meetings taking place with the second set of six passport holders.
He emphasised they were not being interviewed or questioned.
Dubai officials said they are “99% certain” agents from Israeli secret service Mossad were behind the murder but Tel Aviv refused to confirm or deny the link.
Source: Press Association