Dubai: Hamas won't take part in probe

Local police chief clarifies authorities will only cooperate with official Palestinian embassy in investigation into killing of Hamas commander, not with 'individual elements'
Roee Nahmias |
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The United Arab Emirates authorities are refusing to let Hamas participate in their investigation into the circumstances of the Mahmoud al-Mabhouh's assassination in a Dubai hotel on January 20.
Dubai police chief Dhahi Khalfan Tamim told the London-based Arabic-language al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper, published Monday morning, that his government would cooperate with official Palestinian sources in the investigation into the Hamas commander's death.
"We are cooperating with the Palestinian embassy. We have a Palestinian embassy and consulate, but we are not cooperating with individual or separate elements," the police commander explained.
"If the Hamas movement wants to take part in the investigation, our response will be that this is a sovereign matter of the state and that we will not let any group to participate in it with us," he added.
Khalfan explained that "the legal procedure is that countries have the right to run their internal affairs without any interventions. We have an ambassador here representing the Palestinian people, and we will work with him only."
The French news agency reported Sunday that Khalfan had already met with the Palestinian consul-general in Dubai, Hussein Abdul Khaliq, in order to discuss the assassination.
In his interview to al-Sharq al-Awsat, Khalfan denied reported that Mabhouh had escaped an assassination attempt in Dubai several months ago. "If this is true, why didn't that source tell us anything about it?" he wondered.
Khalfan was addressing a claim made by Mabhouh's brother, who told the newspaper on Saturday that his brother had been the subject of several assassination attempts in Syria and Lebanon ,and in Dubai five months ago.
Dubai's police chief of Dubai told AFP on Sunday that Israel's spy agency Mossad or others with a vested interest could have been responsible for killing al-Mabhouh. 
"Personally, I don't exclude any possibility. I don't exclude any party that has an interest in the assassination," he said. "There were seven or more people holding passports from different European countries" in the group suspected of killing Mabhouh.
He refused to name the countries, but added, "We are currently in contact with these European countries to verify the authenticity of the passports."
Khalfan also confirmed that "it seems (Mabhouh) opened the door" of his room, letting his killers in. "Mabhouh was suffocated," he said, adding that "strangulation is possible." 