Prisoner X was held at Unit 15 in
Ayalon Prison, a special wing of the prison reserved for the most dangerous criminals. The cell in which he was held was a special isolation cell originally constructed to house
Yigal Amir, the assassin of Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin. The cell is isolated from the rest of the wing through a door only prison staff can enter. According to a
Haaretz report, the cell is 16 square meters in size, and includes a table, chair, bed, television, and several personal items. The cell bathroom stall and shower area is separated from the rest of the cell by a transparent door that hides the inmate's genitals, and the camera in the bathroom is not normally activated, but the bathroom has a special monitoring system that works by identifying breathing and body movements. If no movement is detected after a certain period, the camera in the bathroom is activated and an alarm is raised. The showerhead is also flexible to prevent any suicide-by-hanging attempt by an inmate. During Zygier's stay there, the cell was under constant camera surveillance. Prisoner X was isolated from the rest of the prison population, but he was allowed visits from his lawyers. One of Zygier's lawyers,
Avigdor Feldman, said in an interview with
Israel Army Radio that Zygier was accused of "grave crimes" but that he maintained his innocence. Feldman revealed that Zygier had been indicted but not yet tried, and that the two of them were considering options for a
plea bargain. Feldman also said that he did not encounter resistance from authorities in meeting with his client, but that prison authorities should have been more vigilant in looking out for his safety. Feldman stated in a later interview that Zygier was uninterested in a plea bargain and wanted to completely clear his name. In yet another interview, Feldman disputed that Zygier was a
traitor. He could not specify the charge, but he maintained Zygier's actions "[did] not threaten the security or the government of Israel". Zygier also complained to Feldman that his treatment was "extremely unfair". A report in the
Kuwaiti newspaper
Al-Jarida, citing "Western sources", said that Zygier was accused of offering to sell the names of the Mossad agents responsible for the
assassination of Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh to the
government of Dubai. The report also stated that the Dubai government agreed to protect Zygier, but that Mossad officials discovered his whereabouts and kidnapped him so he could stand trial in Israel. Dubai Police Chief
Dhahi Khalfan Tamim denied the story in an interview. A different theory was aired in Australian media, which alleged that Zygier may have been about to "blow the whistle" on Israeli intelligence operations involving the use of forged Australian passports, and was about to reveal the information either to the Australian government or to the media before he was arrested. An Australian security official was quoted as saying that Zygier "may well have been about to blow the whistle, but he never got the chance". On 31 January 2010, Zygier was arrested. Eight days later, after Dubai revealed details about the assassination of Hamas leader
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Israel informed Australia of Zygier's arrest. A source told ABC's
Foreign Correspondent program that Zygier leaked information on his work with Mossad to ASIO. He allegedly detailed numerous Mossad operations, including a future mission in Italy that had been planned over a number of years. There was no information given as to whether ASIO or Zygier initiated the contact. Israel and Australia have both denied the allegation. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office stated that "Mr Zygier had no contact with the Australian security services and organisations", whilst a spokeswoman for the
Australian Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has described the Israeli statement as consistent with the full briefing ASIO gave the Attorney-General. Sources close to Mossad expressed doubts that talking to Australian security services would 'earn' Zygier such a harsh treatment. However, Israeli journalist
Alon Ben-David, who is familiar with the case but is still bound by the gag order, suggested that "it's fair to assume that Zygier was charged with divulging state secrets to a foreign element", but noted he did not act out of malice, but out of distress. He further stated that "They were negotiating a plea bargain and it was not about a serious punishment, but a moderate one." On 24 March 2013,
Der Spiegel reported that Zygier had leaked the names of two Mossad informants in
Lebanon who had infiltrated
Hezbollah: Ziad al-Homsi and Mustafa Ali Awadeh, to a Hezbollah supporter. Homsi and Awadeh were arrested on espionage charges and sentenced to 15 years' hard labour; their arrests also led to a widely publicised wave of arrests of Lebanese citizens accused of spying for Israel. The newspaper claimed to have obtained a copy of an internal Israeli inquiry, which stated that Zygier began working for Mossad at age 23. He was sent to work in European companies doing business with Iran and Syria with the purpose of penetrating those countries. A year later, he was allowed to return to Australia to finish his academic studies, but before leaving for Australia, he tried to recruit new informants, during which he exposed information that led to the arrest of Homsi and Awadeh. A book by Rafael Epstein alleges that Zygier told an Iranian businessman details of a Mossad operation in Iran. Zygier supposedly revealed the information while he was studying in Australia in 2009.
Death It is believed that Zygier died on 15 December 2010. Feldman, Zygier's attorney, had met with his client the day before. Feldman said he saw no signs of suicidal thoughts when they met. According to Feldman, Zygier was "rational and focused", although anxious about his upcoming trial. He also had a history of suicide attempts. The cause of Zygier's death has been the matter of some speculation. Ynet posted on 27 December 2010 that an inmate at Ayalon Prison had committed suicide two weeks prior by hanging himself, but the story was suppressed. ABC's exposé claimed that a death certificate for a Ben Alon (the name Zygier adopted when he immigrated to Israel) was issued by a coroner at the
Abu Kabir Forensic Institute. The cause of death was listed as
asphyxiation by hanging, and the location of death as Ramla, the city which hosts Ayalon Prison. According to the ABC, the cell in which he was held was supposedly suicide-proof and constantly monitored by surveillance cameras, leading it to question how Zygier was able to hang himself. However the chief of Israel's prison service rejected the claims saying that the cell was not specially supervised, nor was it considered suicide proof. The prison service also stated that it wanted Zygier's complete supervision orders made public, which it believes would mitigate its responsibility.
Israel's Channel 10 TV news cited unnamed members of Zygier's rescue crew who claimed the inmate hanged himself in the bathroom, out of view of surveillance cameras. A photograph from surveillance footage during Yigal Amir's incarceration in Unit 15 appears to show a separate, adjacent room from the main cell containing a shower and bathroom. A supposed transcript of a phone call from the prison to the
Magen David Adom emergency services was read aloud on Channel 10 news, in which the caller reportedly said, "he's hanged himself", and requested a mobile intensive care unit. Six weeks before the emergence of the ABC report, a lengthy inquiry by Israeli magistrate judge Daphna Blatman Kedrai concluded that it was suicide. Kedrai recommended that a further inquiry be drawn into whether Israeli prison authorities were negligent in his death. After the inquiry, Israel reportedly offered the Zygier family considerable financial compensation for his death. An Israeli official denied that compensation was offered, arguing that none would be necessary until negligence had been proven. In February 2013, in the face of mounting media scrutiny, 8 pages of a 28-page report prepared by Judge Kedrai at the conclusion of her inquiry in December 2012, was released to the public. In the report Kedrai determined Zygier had died as the result of suicide, but found prison officers had contributed to the circumstances leading to his death. The judge said "orders had been given to prevent suicide," and that "these orders were not upheld." Judge Kedrai reported that bruises had been found on Zygier's body but could not determine whether they occurred before or after his death. She noted traces of a tranquilliser drug were found in Zygier's body but did not make anything of it. Whilst leaving her findings open, the judge said she could not negate "the active intervention on the part of another person who intentionally caused his death," but her report said this was negated by "the examination of the conditions of imprisonment that denied entry to the cell and the contents of the camera sweeps that negated the entry of another person into the cell." In September 2013, the Israeli government reached a settlement with the Zygier family, agreeing to pay
NIS 4 million in compensation, consisting of an initial payment of NIS 2.4 million in 2013, followed by payments of NIS 400,000 every year for four years. As part of the agreement, the Israeli government was not to assume responsibility for the circumstances that led to his suicide, or any misconduct that may have taken place during the process of Zygier's recruitment to Mossad. ==Reactions==