UAE RELEASES DETAILS OF HAMAS ASSASSINATION SUSPECTS

S E C R E T DUBAI 000019 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 2020/02/17 TAGS: PREL ASEC PTER IS AE SUBJECT: UAE RELEASES DETAILS OF HAMAS ASSASSINATION SUSPECTS REF: ABU DHABI 47 CLASSIFIED BY: Justin Siberell, Principal Officer, Department of State, EXEC; REASON: 1.4(B),(D) ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The Dubai police have publicly released details of their investigation into the January 19 assassination of senior Hamas commander Mahmoud al Mabhouh. Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan Tamim, Chief of Dubai Police, held a press conference on February 15 in which he shared information on 11 suspects holding European passports. Khalfan said he is not ruling out the possibility that Mossad is behind the murder, but neither has he said definitively that Mossad is responsible. Dhahi said that Dubai has also shared their files with Interpol. UAE-based European missions tell Emboffs that the identifying data on the suspects released through the press is incorrect as a result of photo-subbed passports. Publicizing the results of a sensitive investigation, particularly through the press, was unexpected given Dubai's usual preference to carefully guard security information and vulnerabilities. END SUMMARY ¶2. (SBU) Dubai Police Chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim held a press conference on February 15 at the Media Office of the Dubai Government to provide results of the Department's investigation into the January 19 assassination of senior Hamas commander Mahmoud al Mabhouh in his hotel room in the Bustan Rotana Hotel near Dubai International Airport. According to Khalfan, a surveillance team using "highly sophisticated communications instruments" tracked Mabhouh through the city after his arrival in Dubai January 19 from Damascus presumably to meet with Palestinians from Gaza. He was assassinated around 8:30pm that evening. 3.(C) The names, passport pictures, and dates of birth of the suspects were published on February 16 in above the fold headline coverage in UAE dailies. Subsequently, diplomats from the UK and French Embassies told Emboffs that the data was incorrectly reported with pictures of the suspects drawn from photo-subbed passports. 4.(SBU) The suspects were identified by Khalfan as the following: Peter Elvinger (France); Melvyn Adam Mildiner (UK); Stephen Daniel Hodes (UK); Michael Bodenheimer (Germany); Paul John Keeley (UK); Kevin Daveron (Ireland); Gail Folliard (Ireland); Jonathan Louis Graham (UK); Evan Dennings (Ireland); James Leonard Clark (UK); Michael Lawrence Barney (UK). In addition, two Palestinian residents of Dubai have been arrested and are being investigated for having provided logistical support to the team. According to Dhahi, the suspects flew into Dubai separately in the 24 hours leading up to Mabhouh's own arrival and stayed in various hotels through the city. They departed for Europe and Asia shortly after the assassination. 5.(S) COMMENT: Public release of detailed information regarding a security-related investigation is quite unusual for Dubai. It is unclear what motivation officials had for taking the case to the press and where they plan to go with it next. This is the third assassination in Dubai in recent memory, however, and this approach is likely meant to signal that Dubai will not tolerate becoming a center for such activity, especially given that it hurts the city's tourist-friendly and security-competent reputation. END COMMENT. SIBERELL