The citizens of Israel will eventually learn information on a sensitive security case that was censored by the government, MKs told on Tuesday, Justice Minister Ya’acov Ne’eman. “An article was published that an Australian prisoner committed suicide under a different identity. Do you know about the situation? Do you confirm that it occurred?” MK Ahmed Tibi (UAL-Ta’al) asked, in reference to a report by Australia’s ABC news.
“Are there people in prisons whose incarceration is kept secret? What are the supervision mechanisms on this kind of imprisonment?” MK Dov Khenin (Hadash) asked. “What are the possibilities for parliamentary supervision on such incarcerations? How can the public be critical in this situation?” MK Khenin noted that the information was available from overseas sources on the Internet in any case, and claimed the aim of the suppression was thus not to protect national security but rather to prevent open public debate surrounding the affair.
Ramle Prison (Photo: Israel Prison Service)
According to “The Guardian”: “Like the fictional Man in the Iron Mask, Israel’s infamous ‘Prisoner X’ was allegedly held in solitary confinement in conditions of such strict secrecy that even his own jailers were told neither his name nor the crime he had allegedly committed.” “The man’s identity became the subject of intense speculation when he was reportedly found hanged in his cell in 2010, but the prisoner’s existence has never been officially acknowledged by Israel’s government, which has gone to extraordinary lengths to stifle media coverage of the case. Now, however, new evidence has been uncovered by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that strongly suggests Prisoner X was an Australian citizen, Ben Zygier, whom it described a Mossad agent. Although there has been no intimation of the accusations against Zygier, commentators have suggested it could only suggest the most serious kind of security case, perhaps involving treason.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/12/israel-prisoner-x-australian-mossad-agent
