Germany lets captured Mossad spy suspect return to Israel

Al-Mabhouh

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
German authorities have allowed an Israeli intelligence operative suspected of links to an assassination of a Palestinian official to return to Israel, despite outstanding passport forgery charges against him. The operative, whose travel documents identify him as Uri Brodsky, was arrested upon arriving in Poland on June 4, 2010. An Interpol arrest warrant for Brodsky had been previously issued by German prosecutors, who accuse Brodsky of  helping procure a forged German passport for use by a member of an assassination squad operating under Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. The user of the forged passport is believed to have used the travel document to enter Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in mid-January of this year, where he participated in the killing of Palestinian Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a Hamas weapons procurer, who was found dead in his luxury Dubai hotel room on January 20. Polish authorities decided to extradite Brodsky to Germany despite intense diplomatic pressure from Israel, who pressed Warsaw and Berlin to allow the operative to return home to Israel without facing charges. But intelligence observers, who were initially impressed with Poland and Germany’s strong stance on the issue, soon realized that Brodsky’s extradition was part of a Polish-German-Israeli deal, under which Brodsky would avoid jail sentence and get away with a minor fine for forging an official German travel document. This is precisely what happened. On Thursday, August 12, Polish authorities surrendered Brodsky to German law enforcement personnel at Warsaw’s international airport. Early next morning, the Mossad operative appeared before a court in Cologne, Germany, where he was released on bail, despite facing serious charges of forgery, which carry a maximum sentence of three years in prison. A clearly relieved court official told journalists that “[t]he matter can now be dealt with by written proceedings”. Later on that day, law enforcement authorities in the United Arab Emirates, who are leading a worldwide effort to capture al-Mabhouh’s assassins, asked German officials to clarify why an individual connected with a murder was allowed to leave on bail. It was, of course, too late, as Brodsky was already on his way to Israel, where he arrived the following day. Israeli sources let it be known that Brodsky will be “represented by his attorneys in court” in Germany. Paid for by the Israeli government, undoubtedly.