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