INTERPOL on Thursday issued "Red Notices" for 11 internationally-wanted individuals who have been charged by Dubai authorities with co-ordinating and committing the murder of Palestinian national and Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai on 19 January 2010.
INTERPOL believes that the suspects linked to this murder have stolen the identities of real people and thus has officially made public the photos and the names fraudulently used on the passports in order to limit the ability of accused murderers from traveling freely using the same false passports.
The publication came at the request of Dubai police and INTERPOL’s National Central Bureau (NCB) in Abu Dhabi. “Based on close co-operation among our member countries and on information provided by innocent citizens, it is becoming clear that those who carefully planned and carried out the murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh most likely used forged or fake European passports of innocent citizens whose identities were stolen,” said INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble.
Noble urged police to focus on the pictures of the suspects published in the INTERPOL Red Notice in deciding who to detain, question and apprehend. “Since the names on the passports discovered as part of the Dubai Police's investigation are most likely the names of real and innocent people whose identities have been stolen, INTERPOL does not believe that we know the true identities of these wanted persons. We have therefore included the names fraudulently used because if any of the persons pictured on the INTERPOL Red Notice were found in possession of fraudulently altered or counterfeit passports, then such possession would be evidence of guilt for a variety of crimes,” said Noble.
“The decision by Dubai and INTERPOL to share all existing available information with the international law enforcement community can only help shed light on those who perpetrated and masterminded the attack. In the process it will also help to establish the innocence of the ordinary citizens and even of countries whose identities were stolen and fraudulently used,” added Noble.
Dubai authorities have blamed Israel's Mossad spy agency of standing behind the killing.
