Dubai’s police chief, Lieutenant-General Dahi Khalfan, has denied reports appearing in a section of the media that Qatar is putting pressure on Dubai to close the file on the assassination of Mahmoud Mabhouh. Mabhouh, one of the founders of the military wing of Hamas, was found dead in his Dubai hotel room on January 20. Khalfan told a local Arabic daily, Alkhaleej, in an interview that speculation in some sections of the media that Qatar had asked Dubai to ease the pressure on Israel on the issue of Mabhouh’s assassination was totally baseless . “I can’t even imagine that the Emir of Qatar would like the pressure to be eased on Israel on the above issue,” said Khalfan in a long-winding interview. The reports hinting at this were entirely baseless, he said, adding that even the ruler of Dubai had not made any such request on the issue. And speculation about Hamas being involved in the investigations were also baseless, the Dubai police chief said. “It is a question of our sovereignty,” he commented. He said if Hamas was smart it should find out the identity of the Palestinian who passed on information about Mabhouh’s Dubai travel plans to Mossad, the Israeli spy agency. Mabhouh entered Dubai using a fake name (Rubai) because Dubai does not allow secret military leaders entry. In fact, when he was found dead in his hotel room, the case was being treated as one of the routine murder cases. It was only when a Palestinian recognised the deceased as none other than the high-ranking Hamas military leader that the case became high-profile and took a political turn. Khalfan said video clippings from the security cameras in the hotel where Mabhouh stayed suggested that one of the killers was donning tennis wear. But instead of being present in the tennis court of the hotel, he was in the lobby and keeping a watch on the movements of the Hamas leader. Mabhouh was intoxicated before being strangulated and given a lethal injection. “This style of killing is outdated,” the police chief said. In all, 26 people were involved in the killing and they have left Dubai, he added. http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&subsection=Qatar+News&month=March2010&file=Local_News201003069550.xml

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