'Dubai hit squad stole my identity': British man's name used by assassins who executed senior Hamas leader

A British man in Israel with the same name as an alleged member of a hit squad that assassinated a top Hamas militant in Dubai said his identity had been stolen.



Melvyn Adam Mildiner said he was 'angry, upset and scared' over what he called a misidentification.

He spoke as the Foreign Office confirmed the British passports used in the killing were fraudulent. The FCO has launched an investigation, it said in a statement.



Scroll down for CCTV of the alleged assassins

That's not me: Left, the passport photograph used by the alleged assassin pretending to be Briton Melvyn Mildiner. Right, the photograph used by a woman pretending to be an Irish citizen named Gail Folliard



Last night Dubai police said they were working on the premise that the passports were genuine.

It is not clear if they contacted the Foreign Office to say they believed people carrying British passports were involved in the killing before releasing the information yesterday.

'This is an ongoing Emirati investigation to which we have offered our assistance and support.

We are aware that the holders of six British passports have been named in this case. We believe the passports used were fraudulent and have begun our own investigation.

We have informed the authorities in the UAE that this is the case, and continue to cooperate closely with the Emiratis on this matter.' - Foreign Office spokesman



'We are not aware of the process they went through in making the decision to release the information,' an FCO spokesman said.



He would not comment when asked if the British Government had been contacted by the Dubai police prior to yesterday's announcement.

Dubai police listed Mr Mildiner as one of six men carrying British passports suspected of being part of an 11-man hit squad that killed Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a luxury hotel in the Gulf emirate last month.

But the British national, a resident of a town near Jerusalem, today insisted he had nothing to do with the assassination and had never been to Dubai.

'I woke up this morning to a world of fun,' he said, after newspapers around the world splashed names and photos of the suspects distributed by 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 in a telephone interview.

'I don't know how this happened or who chose my name or why, but hopefully we'll find out soon.'

'It's not me. Which is one silver lining on this entire story because at least I can point to it and say, 'Look, that's not me. It's not the picture that I have in my passport, and it's not the picture that I have on my face that I walk around with every day',' Mr Mildiner said.

Anatomy of an assassination: Left, at around 8.24pm on the night of January 20, victim Mabhouh can be seen stepping off the lift as he arrives back at his room in the Al-Bustan Rotana Hotel. Right, at around the same time, the woman posing as Gail Folliard, apparently wearing a wig and glasses, pretends to speak on a mobile phone as she stakes out the hallway



Some 20 minutes later, at 8.46 p.m., the alleged execution team - carrying bags - leave the victim's hotel room and casually walk out of the hotel, fleeing Dubai within hours. The murder is believed to have taken place within that 20 minutes



Fugitive: One minute later, at 8.47p.m., the woman posing as Folliard also enters the lift with another suspect and leaves the hotel



'I have my passport. It is in my house, along with the passports of everybody else in my family, and there's no Dubai stamps in it because I've never been to Dubai,' he said.

Acknowledging that his name was uncommon, Mr Mildiner said: 'There's probably not many of us.'

Mr Mildiner, who made aliya (the emigration of Jews to Israel) from London nine years ago, does appear to have a Twitter account, though his tweets are now being protected.

He was however tweeting on the day of the assassination, seeming about IT-related things. His tweet, sent from a SPB Mobile Shell phone at 2.33 p.m., reads: 'Is it possible to install something like #Swype on an #iPhone and set it as the default input device?'



He spoke out as Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed that none of the alleged Irish citizens named as being part of the hit squad exist.

‘We’ve been unable to find any record of Irish passports having been issued with details corresponding to the details published today in a number of UAE newspapers,' the Deparment said today.



'We are in ongoing contact with UAE authorities to try and ascertain the exact facts of the case.

'To date we’ve received no evidence that any Irish people were involved.’

The British Home Office declined to comment, saying it was an ongoing investigation.

There was no comment from Dubai-based diplomats from the countries linked to passports.

COUNTDOWN TO AN ASSASSINATION

January 19, 2010: Victim Mahmoud al-Mabhouh arrives in Dubai - mysteriously without his bodyguards. It is still not clear what he was doing in the country.

January 20: Shortly after midnight, the suspects are spotted on airport and hotel CCTV cameras arriving in Dubai.

They split into five teams - four surveillance, and one execution squad. Tennis disguise

During the day several of the suspects are seen in the hotel disguised as tourists. Like something out of a spy caper novel, they wear false beards and glasses and even dress up in sports gear with tennis racquets to fool any suspicious onlookers.

CCTV shows one entering a bathroom and emerging again in his disguise.

At one point they even get in to the same lift as Mabhouh to confirm the room he is in - room 230. Peter Elvinger books the room down the hall - room 237. Some of the assassins take up position. 4.25p.m.: One of the suspects arrives at the Al-Bustan Rotana Hotel, where Mabhouh is staying. Mabhouh 8.24p.m. Mabhouh arrives back at the hotel. 8.27 p.m.: Gail and Kevin can be seen monitoring the hallway outside his room. The killing, believed to have taken only ten minutes, takes place.

8.46p.m.: The alleged execution team are caught on CCTV apparently leaving the victim's room and walking out of the Al-Bustan Rotana Hotel after the hit is believed to have taken place.

8.47p.m.: Gail is seen stepping in to the lift and leaving the hotel Within two hours, the entire team has fled the country to destinations in Europe and Asia.

Dubai police said last night they are working on the premise the passports are genuine - though that premise is false, according to the Foreign Office statement.

Last night the Daily Mail confirmed that people with the same names and birthdates as those on the passports were all born in Britain. Mr Mildiner is the only one to have spoken out so far.



The 11-strong gang - some wearing fake beards and wigs - who disguised themselves as tourists with tennis clothes and rackets in a highly orchestrated murder.



They are believed to have fled the emirate after the killing and are now on the run. Dubai's attorney general, Essam al-Hemaydan, said international arrest warrants have been issued.

They arrived on separate flights and spent less than a day in the emirate, tracking their victim to his five-star residence, the al-Bustan Rotana, near the airport before ambushing and suffocating him.



It was earlier alleged he was electrocuted before being murdered.

Dubai's chief of police, Lieutenant General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, last night released the names of six people claiming to be British and three claiming to be Irish among the killers.



'We have no doubts that it was 11 people holding these passports, and we regret that they used the travel documents of friendly countries,' he said.

The other members of the gang were carrying French and German passports.



Within two hours of the attack on Mahmoud al-Mabhouh on January 20, the assassins fled Dubai, heading to airports in Europe and Asia.

It is believed that they were in the country for only 19 hours in all.



It is believed a request has been placed with Interpol for arrest warrants for the gang.

Al-Mabhouh was found dead in his hotel room without any injuries to his body, according to initial reports from Palestinian sources.



He had barricaded the door of his room with chairs, a standard precaution by a man who felt that Israeli intelligence had been after his life for 20 years.

But Lt Gen Tamim did not go as far as blaming Israel directly, saying it was possible that 'leaders of certain countries gave orders to their intelligence agents to kill' the Hamas man.

Outlining how he believed the assassination was carried out, he said it was a highly organised operation, carried out with advance knowledge of the victim's movements.

Forensic tests indicated al-Mabhouh died of suffocation, but examinations are continuing to establish other possible factors in his death - including the possibility of electrocution and torture.

Airport surveillance video of the alleged killers arriving on separate flights to Dubai the day before al-Mabhouh was found dead, were shown at a news conference yesterday.



The members of the hit-squad divided into teams - four surveillance teams and the execution squad who would actually carry out the assassination. Three of the execution squad were carrying British passports, one was carrying an Irish passport.



Hotel CCTV shows men disguised as tennis-playing tourists conducting surveillance in the hotel just hours before al-Mabhouh was killed

Assassinated: Mahmoud al-Mabhouh

They used 'coded communication tools' to keep in contact.

CCTV footage shows the female member of the gang apparently wearing a dark wig, big hat and sunglasses to blend in with tourists.



Others in the hit squad were also seen on the film dressed as holidaymakers, wearing tennis clothes and carrying rackets and athletic bags.



The footage also showed the gang gathering in groups at the Al-Bustan Rotana Hotel.

All of the gang paid for their expenses in cash to avoid being traced.

Investigators saying that several members of the hit squad followed Al-Mabhouh to his room, even riding in the elevator with him to confirm his room number.



Then some of the team checked in to a room across the hall.



Four assassins then entered his room while he was out, using an electronic device to open the door, waiting to pounce when he returned.

The killing took just ten minutes.

The gang were careful not to disturb anything in the room and left the door locked from the inside to try to hide their actions, said Dubai police.



All of the suspects left the country within 19 hours of their arrival. Police said some went to Europe, some to Asia.



But there were clues, police said - the alleged assassins hired cars, and even apparently left fingerprints.

And the CCTV footage used to map the suspects' movements from their arrival in Dubai up until the murder was the most damning of all, police said.



'DAY OF THE JACKAL'-LIKE ASSASSINATION PLOT

The elaborate plan to kill Mabhouh reads like something out of a Frederick Forsyth-style spy caper - which, in fact, it is. Forsyth wrote 'The Day of the Jackal', in which an assassin uses false passports in a plot to kill French President Charles de Gaulle, in 1971.

'The Jackal'

It was turned into a film in1973, with a remake loosely based on the original and starring Bruce Willis made in 1997. Israeli hit squads have used non-Israeli passports in the past, notably in 1997 when agents who bungled an attempt to assassinate Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Jordan entered the country on Canadian passports.

One of the agents had a passport bearing the name of a Canadian living in Israel, who later said he was the victim of identity theft. In 2005, Israel apologised to New Zealand after two suspected Mossad agents were sentenced to six months in jail by a court in Auckland that found they had sought to obtain a New Zealand passport illegally.



'We have identified the suspects and will issue arrest warrants against them and will take legal action against anyone or any party which will prove to stand behind the murder,' Lt Gen Tamim said.

'Currently we do not have clear evidence that a specific apparatus has carried out the act,' he added.



'We are dealing with the passports as original unless it is proven otherwise. We are asking for the co-operation of the respective countries.'

Police said the ringleader is Peter Elvinger, 49, who holds a French passport.

They accused him of being the squad’s logistical coordinator and the one who booked room 237 in Al Bustan Rotana, down the corridor from the victim’s room – 230.

Yesterday police said that there was ‘serious penetration into al-Mabhouh's security prior to his arrival’ in Dubai, but that it appeared al-Mabhouh was travelling alone.

Other reports suggested he was in Dubai to buy weapons for Hamas.



It is understood he entered Dubai on a false passport the day before his murder.

Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement, denied al-Mabhouh - one of the founders of the group's military wing - was en route to Iran, one of the group's major backers.



Top Hamas figures have accused Israeli agents of killing him.

Lt Gen Tamin said Israeli involvement could not be ruled out.

'We do not rule out Mossad, but when we arrest those suspects we will know who masterminded it,' he said.



'If the law of the jungle is the system for some countries, in the UAE it is rule of law that governs us, and if leaders of some countries give orders to their intelligence services to kill, this practice is rejected and is a crime in our laws, religion and Islamic traditions,' Gen Tamin said.

He added that the UAE would follow the proper legal procedures and work with Interpol to track down the perpetrators – “even if it’s some countries’ leaders'.

'Stephen Daniel Hodes (British)' 'Paul John Keeley (British)' 'Michael Barney (British)'

'James Leonard Clarke (British)' 'Peter Elvinger (French)' 'Jonathan Louis Graham (British'

'Kevin Daveron (Irish)' 'Michael Bodenheimer (German)' 'Evan Dennings (Irish)'

In a statement released last month, Hamas acknowledged that al-Mabhouh was involved in the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers in 1989.

The organisation said that until his death, he had played a 'continuous role in supporting his brothers in the resistance inside the occupied homeland'.

The Al Bustan Rotana in Dubai is a luxury 275 room 5 star hotel, catering for business and leisure travellers. It has seven restaurants and cafes, a health club, two swimming pools, tennis courts and beach access.