A TEAM of Garda investigators may be sent to Dubai as part of efforts to determine why five forged Irish passports with numbers that correspond with legitimate Irish passports were used by members of a team allegedly responsible for the assassination of a senior Hamas operative in the emirate last month.
The Dubai authorities have said the hit squad used British, Irish, French and German passports. The number of fake Irish passports involved was initially understood to be three, but yesterday Ireland’s Ambassador in Abu Dhabi Ciarán Madden was informed by emirate officials that two more had been implicated.
Amid rising speculation that Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad may have been behind the killing of Mahmoud al-Mahbhouh, the Israeli ambassador to Ireland Zion Evrony was called to the Department of Foreign Affairs yesterday to discuss the use of fake Irish passports.
The Israeli authorities were requested to provide whatever information they could in relation to the case. Mr Evrony said that he had no information but added that he would relay the messages he had received to the Israeli authorities.
Four of the Irish citizens whose passport numbers were copied have been contacted by the Department of Foreign Affairs. All four live in Ireland.
Dubai police chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim last night called for Interpol to issue “a red notice against the head of Mossad ... as a killer in case Mossad is proved to be behind the crime, which is likely now.”