By Jonathan Pearlman in Sydney
5:12PM GMT 12 Feb 2013
A mysterious prisoner who died in Israel after being held in total isolation in a maximum-security jail – dubbed Prisoner X – has been identified by the Australian media as a 34-year-old Australian citizen, Ben Zygier, who moved to Israel from Melbourne.
Prisoner X has been identified by the Australian media as a 34-year-old Australian citizen, Ben Zygier, who moved to Israel from Melbourne Photo: ALAMY
The existence of the prisoner became known in 2010 after a story about him briefly appeared on Israel's Ynet news website, which said he was being held in a private wing of the Ayalon prison for unspecified crimes.
The report, which said he was placed in "utter isolation from the outside world" and had no contact with other prisoners and received no visitors, quickly disappeared from the website.
Israel's domestic intelligence services had reportedly obtained a court order banning any reporting of the affair on national security grounds – though the gag order itself was not allowed to be reported.
A separate report in December 2010 said the man had died in his cell, but the report was again swiftly removed.
Now, Australia's public broadcaster, ABC, has reported that the man who died was Ben Zygier, an Australian Jewish lawyer who was recruited by Israel's spy agency, Mossad, and also used the name Ben Alon. Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs also confirmed that Mr Zygier carried an Australian passport with the name Ben Allen.
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Mr Zygier was married to an Israeli woman and had two young children. They lived in Ra'anana, a town north of Tel Aviv which has a large population of immigrants from Western countries.
The investigation by ABC's Foreign Correspondent programme said he was found hanging in a cell in the prison in December 2010 – apparently after committing suicide. His body was apparently flown to Melbourne and he was buried a week later.
He was reportedly held in the prison from early 2010 and none of the guards knew his identity. He was buried in a Jewish cemetery in the Melbourne suburb of Springvale on December 22 2010, seven days after his death.
The affair still cannot be reported within Israel, where there has been intense interest in the case on social media.
Israeli media on Tuesday reported that the prime minister's office asked the local media to avoid reporting a particularly sensitive story; the story was not named but was presumably the case of Mr X.
Australia's foreign minister, Bob Carr, said he was concerned about the allegations but the affair had not previously been raised with him. Israel did not notify Australia that it was holding Mr Zygier in prison or that he died, he said.
"The difficulty is I'm advised we've had no contact with his family [and] there's been no request for consular assistance during the period it's alleged he was in prison," Mr Carr said.
The incarceration of Mr X – who was held in a cell especially built for Yigal Amir, the assassin who killed Israeli prime minister in 1995 – led to various conspiracy theories about his possible identities. Some bloggers speculated that he must be held on espionage-related charges, other claimed he was an Iranian top-ranking security official.
The Israeli embassy in Australia would not comment on the case. Officials in Israel would not discuss the case either on or off the record.
Israel's Prisoner X 'identified as Australian Jew who worked for Mossad' - Telegraph
