The three alleged Irish nationals that Dubai authorities claimed helped to assassinate last month a senior Hamas official do not exist, according to Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs. The Irish government said the trio of alleged passport-holders identified on Monday in Dubai as Gail Folliard, Evan Dennings and Kevin Daveron do not appear in Ireland's records of legitimate passport-holders.
"We are unable to identify any of those three individuals as being genuine Irish citizens. Ireland has issued no passports in those names," the department said in a statement to The Associated Press. The department conveyed the passport numbers given for the trio in Dubai were counterfeits because they contained the wrong number of digits and no letters.
Meanwhile, a man in Israel with the same name as an alleged member of the hit squad that assassinated the top Hamas man said on Tuesday he was "angry, upset and scared" over what he called a misidentification. Dubai police listed "Melvyn Adam Mildiner", a British national, as one of 11 Europeans suspected of killing Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Speaking to Reuters, Melvyn Adam Mildiner, resident of Beit Shemesh a town near Jerusalem, said he had nothing to do with the assassination and had never been to Dubai. "I am obviously angry, upset and scared -- any number of things. And I'm looking into what I can do to try to sort things out and clear my name," he said.
"I don't know how this happened or who chose my name or why, but hopefully we'll find out soon."
