No prison sentence for Brodsky

Germany likely to fine alleged Mossad agent for passport forgery.

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT
Brodsky 311 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Brodsky 311
(photo credit: Courtesy)
BERLIN - Rainer Wolf, a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office in Cologne, told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday that the alleged Mossad agent Uri Brodsky will probably be slapped with a financial penalty instead of incarceration  for his reported involvement in securing a false passport, which enabled a hit man to travel to Dubai in January and assassinate Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a senior Hamas official involved in Iranian arms smuggling.
According to Wolf, the Polish authorities plan to extradite Brodsky to  Germany on Friday, and a hearing is set for Friday morning.  When asked if the prosecutor has sufficient evidence to convict Brodsky of illegally obtaining a passport, Wolf told the Jpost that “if  it were to come to a trial” the prosecutor can prove Brodsky improperly obtained the German passport.
Wolf said the hearing on Friday is slated to address whether Brodsky will be remanded to pre-trial confinement. The prosecutor said that “it is unnecessary” that Brodsky be incarcerated and the court allows for possibilities such as bail. Brodsky is represented by two German attorneys and a third attorney in Tel Aviv. The two German attorneys wished to not be identified at this time.
German media reported that Brodsky used the name Alexander Verin when he assisted a second alleged Mossad agent at a Cologne passport agency, who represented himself as Michael Bodenheimer, the son of a German Jew named Hans Bodenheimer.  Under German Law, German Jews, who were stripped of their citizenship or fled Nazi Germany, and their descendents, can exercise their right to German citizenship.
The German authorities initially charged Brodsky with espionage activity in the Federal Republic as well as forgery of a passport. A polish court determined in early August that Brodsky could be extradited to Germany based on the passport forgery charge but not because of secret service intelligence operations in the Federal Republic. In a statement to The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday, the German federal prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe wrote that because the Polish court expunged the espionage allegation, the federal prosecutor no longer has jurisdiction over the Brodsky case.
The actual identity of the Israeli is unclear. He has appeared to have used multiple names.
Wolf, from the Cologne public prosecutor's office, said the process could last between thirty and sixty days. He said that the allegation of a forged passport involving a family member of a Holocaust survivor is the first case for public prosecutor's office.  According to Wolf, if Brodsky is slapped with a financial penalty, his prison time in Poland could be factored in to minimize the monetary fine.