Israeli public security minister Avi Dichter has turned down an invitation to visit Britain out of concerns that he could be arrested there for his role in the 2002 assassination of a senior Hamas militant in Gaza, Dichter’s spokesman said Thursday.

Dichter, invited to speak at a conference on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process hosted by a British research institute, was advised by Israel’s Foreign and Justice ministries to call off the visit, spokesman Mati Gill said.