The suspect known as Uri Brodsky was handed over to
German police at Warsaw's international airport, police spokesman Mariusz
Sokolowski said.
An Associated Press photographer saw a man at the airport
wearing a hooded jacket pulled over his face to hide his identity as he was
escorted by masked anti-terror police.
Brodsky appeared that way during several appearances at
courts in Warsaw.
German prosecutors accuse him of illegally helping to
procure a passport used in connection with the Jan. 19 slaying of Hamas
commander Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh at a hotel in Dubai.
Prosecutors in Cologne, who are handling the case against
Brodsky, were not immediately available for comment. But a German official who
declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue said Brodsky was to
arrive with a police helicopter at Cologne-Bonn airport in the afternoon.
Brodsky is expected to appear Friday morning before a
judge, who will read out the warrant against him and decide at a closed-doors
appearance whether Brodsky must remain in custody pending the filing of formal
charges and a possible trial.
Brodsky was arrested June 4 at Warsaw airport on a
European arrest warrant issued by Germany, which accused him of espionage and
helping to falsely obtain a German passport.
However, Brodsky will not face spying charges in Germany.
The Polish court that granted the extradition request said he could only be
sent to face prosecution for his alleged involvement in faking an identity.
Israel's suspected forgery of European passports
allegedly used by members of a hit squad who took part in the killing of the
Hamas leader in Dubai in January annoyed several European countries, including
Britain, which expelled an Israeli diplomat over the matter in March.
Police in the United Arab Emirates said the elaborate hit
squad linked to the Jan. 19 slaying of Al-Mabhouh — one of the founders of
Hamas' military wing — involved some 25 suspects, most of them carrying fake
passports from European nations and Australia.
Among the faked passports, according to Dubai police, was
one issued in 2009 by authorities in Cologne with Brodsky's alleged
involvement. The passport was issued to a man named Michael Bodenheimer, who
allegedly was part of the hit squad.
