The Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) has been brought in to investigate the use of British passports in the assassination of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.
Soca, set up in 2004, disclosed tonight that it was taking the lead in the investigation to discover how British documents had been involved in the operation believed to have been carried out by Mossad, the Israeli secret service.
One Whitehall official told The Times: “The evidence so far makes very bad reading but until we can get all the facts about exactly what happened, we won’t be in a position to decide what action to take. We have to be clear about the facts before we slag people off.”
If the evidence incriminated Israel, the official said it would be up to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to summon the Israeli ambassador and demand an explanation.
Soca is in touch with the UK Identity and Passport Service to clarify that the passports of six of the alleged assassins were based on genuine British documents. Soca is an intelligence-led agency with law enforcement powers.
Speaking on LBC radio today, Gordon Brown confirmed that he took the misuse of British identity documents very seriously and had ordered a full investigation which was now under way.