WARSAW – A Polish appeal court has upheld a decision to extradite a suspected Israeli spy to Germany in connection with the killing of a Hamas leader in Dubai in January, his lawyer said yesterday.
Uri Brodsky was detained at Warsaw airport in June by Polish police after Germany issued a European arrest warrant for the person responsible for fraudulently obtaining a German passport. He then appealed against a ruling authorising his extradition.
“The appeals court in Warsaw upheld the original court decision,” lawyer Anna Mika-Kopec said. Mr Brodsky will be sent to Germany within 10 days but he may only be tried for forgery, not espionage, she said.
The German passport is believed to have been used by a member of a hit squad that Dubai says assassinated Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.
The hit squad used fraudulent Irish, British, French and Australian as well as German passports, Dubai says.
Mr Mabouh, born in the Gaza Strip, had lived in Syria since 1989 and Israeli and Palestinian sources have said he played a role in smuggling Iranian-funded arms to militants in Gaza. – (Reuters)