Court to rule on extradition of Israeli suspect

POLISH PROSECUTORS said yesterday that they will push for the extradition to Germany of an Israeli citizen wanted in connection…

POLISH PROSECUTORS said yesterday that they will push for the extradition to Germany of an Israeli citizen wanted in connection with the assassination of a top Hamas official in Dubai last January.

A Polish court will deliver its ruling on the case within the month, a verdict prosecutors said would be made on legal and not diplomatic grounds.

That remark was seen as a nod to Israel, which has lobbied for the repatriation of their citizen, arrested on June 4th using the name Uri Brodsky on foot of a European arrest warrant issued by German authorities.

The man is accused of using a false identity to acquire a passport linked to the killing at a luxury Dubai hotel of Mahmud al-Mabhuh, a founder of the military wing of Hamas.

READ MORE

The killing caused an international incident because the assassins, believed to be Israeli secret service agents working for Mossad, used forged passports from Britain, France, Ireland, Australia and Germany.

German prosecutors say the passport, issued in 2008, was real but that the identity of the recipient, Michael Bodenheimer, had been stolen.

German prosecutors want to question the man about a successful passport application in early 2009 after the applicant presented documents claiming German residency as well as the wedding certificate from parents he claimed fled the Nazis.