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Did prisoner X really commit suicide?

February 16, 2014 at 3:24 pm

An Israeli-Arab news website said on Friday that information reported by the Israeli media alludes to the possibility that the Mossad collaborator of Australian origin, Ben Zygier, was executed.

Ben Zygier’s jailers claim his corps was found in the bathroom, the only place where there is no CCTV, while paramedics claim they carried out first aid on him in a room where there was no rope or any other objects that could be used to commit suicide.


Ben Zygier was alive and stayed alive for some minutes after they were called, the paramedics said, and he died as they carried out first aid.

However, The Jordan Times has reported that an Israeli lawyer, Avigdor Feldman, who met Ben Zygier just days before his death, confirmed that Mossad agents had been involved in the case, and said he saw no indication that the prisoner was planning to kill himself.

“He appeared rational, focused, he spoke clearly about the issue and did not exude any sense of self-pity,” Feldman was reported by The Jordan Times as saying to the Israeli army radio. He expressed surprise that a prisoner in “a cell which was being monitored and checked 24-hours a day could manage to commit suicide by hanging himself.”

The Australian newspaper, Sydney Morning Herald, said this week that intelligence officials believe that Ben Zygier may have been about to reveal information about sensitive Mossad operations, including the use of falsified Australian passports, to either Canberra or the media when he was arrested.

As an Australian security official familiar with the case, Sydney Morning Herald continued, Ben Zygier “…may well have been about to blow the whistle, but he never got the chance.”

Israeli Authorities deny any violation of human rights regarding the prisoner designated by the symbol ‘X’ and found dead in his jail cell on 24February, 2010. Under the gag order, Israel did not released information about his death until three Israeli MKs discussed the issue in an open Knesset session earlier this week.

Meanwhile, the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, revealed today (Friday) that Israel recently signed an agreement to pay several million shekels in compensation to Ben Zygier’s family.