DUBAI, Feb 18, 2010 (AFP) - Dubai police insist the European passports used by the killers of a top Hamas militant in a luxury hotel room of the Gulf emirate were not fakes, Al-Bayan newspaper reported on Thursday.
"Dubai police has more evidence, apart from the tapes and photos that were revealed earlier," police chief Dahi Khalfan said, quoted in Al-Bayan. "The coming days will carry more surprises which will leave no room for doubt."
He insisted the European passports used by the team which allegedly killed Mahmud al-Mabhuh last month were not fakes and that Dubai immigration officers were "trained" by European security experts to spot such documents.
"This training qualifies immigration officers to spot fake passports. They applied these procedures at Dubai airport when the alleged (killers) entered the country," he said. "No forgery was found in those passports."
He described the alleged assassins of Mabhuh, a top militant of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas which rules Gaza, as "stupid" because their moves were "traced second-by-second" by security cameras.
With Dubai police's disclosure of the names and photos of the alleged hit team, fingers have been pointed at Israel's spy agency Mossad and its agents accused of using fake passports of European citizens.
Six British passport holders, three Irish, including a woman, a German and a man with a French passport made up the alleged hit team.
Britain summoned the Israeli ambassador, Ron Prosor, on Thursday to discuss the use of identities apparently stolen from six British citizens living in Israel, the British government said.
The alleged killers arrived in Dubai on January 19, a day after Mabhuh, 50, who lives in Damascus, arrived in the emirate. They left the United Arab Emirates on January 20, the day the Hamas leading militant was found dead.
Khalfan said on Monday that Dubai police were hunting the 11 suspects, showing videos and photos revealing their moves in the hotel and their departure from Dubai.