The Israeli intelligence agency, the Mossad, will neither deny nor accept responsibility for the murder of Hamas weapons dealer Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. But one of the alleged Dubai assassins, a man working under the alias Michael Bodenheimer, left traces in Cologne, Germany and Herzliya, Israel.

The man who came into the Cologne citizen registry office in early summer 2009 was in a hurry. He introduced himself as Michael Bodenheimer and requested a national identity card and a German passport.

He was an Israeli citizen, he explained - he had moved to Germany in mid-June. He offered proof in form of an Israeli passport that had been issued in Tel Aviv in November 2008. As proof of his eligibility for German citizenship, he provided the marriage certificate of his parents, who had fled Germany to escape the Nazis. According to the Article 116 of the German constitution, "former citizens of Germany, and there descendants, are entitled to German citizenship."

On June 18, 2009, the man picked up his passport and national identity card. Eight months later, police in Dubai identified Michael Bodenheimer as one of the alleged killers of Hamas weapons dealer Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. The man had used the German passport he procured in Cologne to enter the United Arab Emirates.

The Cologne prosecutor's office initiated proceedings alleging document falsification. The Federal Prosecutor's Office is currently pondering taking over the case because of the involvement of foreign agent activity. Because all investigations thus far indicate that the Israeli foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad, is behind the hit, the Israeli ambassador, Emmanuel Nachshon, was invited to the Foreign Ministry in Berlin last Thursday. The German government's Middle East envoy, Andreas Michaelis, asked Nachshon for an explanation - but so far the Israelis have yet to offer a convincing answer.