The legality of the use and abuse of foreign passports? The falsification of passports and identity theft are serious criminal offences under British law. No doubt they are too under Israeli law. Falsification of a British passport by a member of the Israeli intelligence services is therefore more than just a clear breach of diplomatic relations. Moreover, there would be serious implications were it to transpire that the British government was aware that falsified travel documents were being used by Mossad as has been suggested by one British security source.

What are the steps the governments of these foreign passport-holders should do in light of these revelations?

The respective governments should:

• Condemn the extra judicial killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh as a breach of international law;
• Unequivocally declare whether they were aware that falsified travel documents were being used by Mossad in relation to this operation and/or any other;
• Require the Israeli government to confirm whether its intelligence services were involved in the murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh;
• Require the Israeli government to confirm whether or not their intelligence services used falsified passports for this or any other operation or whether they have done since any assurance that they would not do so;
• Seek an assurance from the Israeli government that their intelligence operatives will never falsify passports for use in operations;
• Require the Israeli government to condemn the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh as a breach of international law;
• Seek an assurance from the Israeli government that they will extradite any of those identified by the Dubai authorities as having been involved in the killing to Dubai to face trial for murder and to Ireland, Britain, France and/or Germany to face trial for offences arising out of the abuse of passports issued by those countries.

What steps should be taken to prevent this from happening in the future? If the Israeli government fails to comply with any of the requests made of them, the government could expel the Israeli ambassador from the country, break off diplomatic ties and/or impose sanctions which could deter future occurrences.

Sarah McSherry,
Human Rights Lawyer and Solicitor at Christian Khan