UAE concerned over Brodsky release

15/08/2010| IslamWeb

The United Arab Emirates has voiced concern over Germany's decision to release on bail an alleged Israeli spy suspected of being linked to the murder of a Hamas leader in Dubai.

State media quoted UAE officials as saying that they want evidence that Uri Brodsky, who was released from detention in the German city of Cologne on Friday, has no connection to the January killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.

Abdurahim al-Awadhi, a senior UAE foreign ministry official, had expressed "concern that Brodsky has been released on bail and granted the freedom to return to Israel while the case against him continues", WAM, the state news agency, reported on Saturday.

Brodsky's bail means that he does not have to stand trial in Germany and is free to travel wherever he wants to while judicial proceedings against him continue.

Brodsky, who was arrested in June at Poland's Warsaw airport on suspicion of obtaining a German passport under false pretences, was extradited to Germany on Thursday.

He now faces only those charges relating to passport fraud as that is the offence for which Poland agreed to extradite him.

Fine likely

But Rainer Wolf, the spokesman for the prosecution, cautioned that Brodsky could face spying charges if he leaves Germany and later returns.

Wolf said the most likely penalty option for passport fraud was a fine of some kind.

Brodsky is accused of illegally obtaining the German passport under the name Michael Bodenheimer, which was later found to have been used by a member of the hit-squad that killed Mahmoud al-Mabhouh earlier this year.

The squad, which Dubai police believe was from Mossad, the Israeli spy agency, was found to have used 26 doctored foreign passports, sparking a diplomatic fallout not only with Germany but also Australia, Britain, France and Ireland.

In the wake of the alleged spy's arrest, Israel called on Poland to send Brodsky straight home rather than handing him over to Germany.

PHOTO CAPTION

A man using the name Uri Brodsky hides his face under a hood as he is escorted by police in Warsaw's Court of Appeal August 5, 2010.

Al-Jazeera