Israeli spy suspect extradited by Poland

Police said the man known as Uri Brodsky was handed over yesterday afternoon to German police at Warsaw's international airport.

A man was seen 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 murder on January 19 of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.

Brodsky was to arrive in a police helicopter at Cologne-Bonn airport yesterday evening.

He is expected to appear in court this morning, where a judge will read out the warrant against him and decide at a closed-doors appearance whether he must remain in custody pending the filing of formal charges and a possible trial.

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 January 19 murder of al-Mabhouh, one of the founders of Hamas's 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.