THE WOMAN who has been named a suspect in the alleged assassination of a senior Hamas figure in Dubai gave a false Dublin address when checking into a hotel in the emirate the day before the killing took place.
The Irish Timeshas obtained a copy of a receipt issued by the Jumeirah Emirates Towers hotel to the woman, who was travelling on a fake Irish passport under the name Gail Folliard.
The woman has been named by Dubai police as one of up to 18 suspects – at least five of whom were carrying forged Irish passports with numbers that match legitimate passports – in the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh last month.
The invoice gives Ms Folliard's home address as 78 Memmier Road in Dublin. No such address exists. The document also notes Ms Folliard's check-out time as 3.10pm on January 19th, the day Mr Mabhouh was assassinated in his hotel room. Ms Folliard stayed at the same hotel as one of her alleged accomplices, named by Dubai police as Kevin Daveron, who was also travelling on a fake Irish passport. The Irish Timesrevealed earlier this week that Mr Daveron had checked into the hotel using the address of a long-vacant property at 6 Elgin Road in Dublin's Ballsbridge, which is owned by a brother of former taoiseach Albert Reynolds.
The Jumeirah Emirates Towers hotel has confirmed that the address details on both invoices obtained by The Irish Times correspond with those in the hotel’s records. Ms Folliard’s first name is spelled “Gale” on the receipt.
According to Dubai police, Ms Folliard and Mr Daveron travelled from Paris on an Air France flight. It is believed the pair comprised one of two surveillance teams sent in advance to gather intelligence on Mr Mabhouh.
They are alleged to have acted as lookouts while the assassins acted. The two are said to have flown back to Paris that night.
The Department of Foreign Affairs was last night trying to establish if more than five Irish passports have been implicated in the case, following reports in the Gulf that investigators are examining further documentation that includes British and Irish passports.
“The use of five false Irish passports has been confirmed by the Dubai police, but the investigation is ongoing and we would not rule out the possibility of further developments,” a department spokesman said last night.
Dubai’s police chief has said he is “99 per cent” certain that Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad orchestrated the killing. Israel has so far refused to confirm or deny involvement. A statement issued by the Israeli foreign ministry yesterday repeated what the country’s foreign minister told his EU counterparts, including Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin, during a series of meetings in Brussels on Monday.
“It should be emphasised that no evidence links Israel to the incident,” the ministry said. “If alternate information, beyond media reports, would emerge, then Israel would react to it. However, as no such further information has been presented, there is no need for Israel to relate to the matter.”
Fine Gael’s foreign affairs spokesman Billy Timmins yesterday called on Mr Martin to brief the Dáil on the unfolding case as a matter of urgency. “[He] must start getting explanations as to how suspects in an assassination overseas were able to use valid Irish passport numbers on fake passports and provide a bona fide Dublin address,” Mr Timmins said.
Labour TD Joe Costello said Ireland and the EU must insist that Israel make a “categorical statement” regarding any involvement. Mr Costello accused Israel of treating European concerns “flippantly”.