Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was sedated before being suffocated, Dubai police say

The Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was injected with a strong sedative before being suffocated in his hotel room by suspected Mossad agents, Dubai police have revealed.

The results of a toxicology report released today show that the Hamas commander was paralysed by an injection of succinylcholine, a fast-acting muscle relaxant. He was then suffocated with a pillow.

Succinylcholine is used in intensive care to assist the insertion of a tracheal tube in emergency treatment of conditions such as stroke, burns and drowning.

The drug does not induce loss of consciousness or anaesthesia, meaning that al-Mabhouh would have been conscious but unable to struggle as he was suffocated.

Major General Khamis Mattar Al Mazeina, deputy commander of Dubai police, said that the drug would have caused “immediate and temporary paralysis” of the victim.

"The assassins used this method so that it would seem that his death was natural. There were no signs of resistance shown by the victim," he said.

Al-Mabhouh was murdered in his room at the Al Bustan Rotana hotel on January 19. His body was not found by staff until the following day.

Dubai police also said that they would soon name a new suspect in the case, bringing the total number of named agents to 27. Police revealed last week that 12 of these were carrying British passports. Several UK citizens living in Israel had their identities stolen by the killers.

Three Palestinians are also being held in Dubai in connection with the killing.

UK agents are to meet six of the dual British-Israeli nationals whose passports were used, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) said.

The genuine British passport-holders will be interviewed at the UK Embassy in Tel Aviv as potential witnesses to a crime. Officers will meet the other six in the near future.

A Soca spokesman said: “We are arranging to speak to the six genuine passport holders who are resident in Israel as potential witnesses to a crime. Those meetings will take place in the British Embassy.”

He said the Israeli authorities had been informed and had “no issue” with the meetings taking place.

Dubai police say they are almost certain that Israel’s spy agency Mossad was behind the assassination. Israel has declined to comment.

Administered in sufficient quantities, succinylcholine is fatal. The drug has occasionally been used for executions by lethal injection, but is no longer favoured. However, it has been used in a number of murders.

Dubai police said it was not clear how much of the drug had been administered to al-Mabhouh, but it was not the cause of death.