Nearly six months after the assassination of senior Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai, Israel continues to pay the toll for staging the incident.
The Haaretz reported Sunday that the Israel risks losing Poland, another close ally, over the extradition of Uri Brodsky, who is widely believed to be one of the Mossad spies allegedly involved in the January assassination.
Brodsky, who is an Israeli citizen, was arrested earlier this month in Poland’s capital city of Warsaw after revelations showed that he helped the Mossad hit squad to obtain forged German passports to assassinate al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel room.
Germany has demanded that Brodsky be extradited, where he could be tried in a German court or even sent to Dubai for his suspected role in the assassination.
Brodsky has denied having connections with the high-profile assassination and says he is a businessman, but evidence show him being involved in logistics, providing paperwork, safe houses and other back-up for the 20-strong execution squad.
Israel, for its part, is pressuring Poland to refrain from handing Brodsky over to Germany — leaving Warsaw officials in an awkward position, in which they are torn between Tel Aviv’s demands and Berlin’s repeated calls for Brodsky’s extradition.
This is while Germany and Poland have an extradition agreement, both bilateral and through European treaties.
However, Polish officials have strived to keep the lid on Brodsky’s arrest, which was based on information provided by the Dubai and United Arab Emirates police and on an international arrest warrant issued in Germany via Interpol.
Once the story was out in the open on Saturday, the Poland played it down and based most of the reporting on Germany’s Der Spiegel report of the controversy.
According to the report, Britain and Australia’s expulsion of Mossad representatives show that Israel continues to suffer the diplomatic consequences of the Dubai hit, and indicates furthermore that the world has grown weary of Israeli actions and sees it as some sort of a neighborhood bully that disregards and violates international norms.
(Press TV)
