When an Australian media report first revealed the identity of Prisoner X, a.k.a., Ben Zygier, the secret prisoner who committed suicide in an Israeli prison, the military censor and courts tried stopping the Israeli media from discussing it. But over the following days, a spy story gone awry began to unravel. Read +972 bloggers’ comprehensive reporting and analyses of the affair.
UPDATE, Wednesday 9.00 AM: The censorship ban on the ABC report regarding the arrest and death of Australian born Ben Zygier was lifted, and this morning the Israeli media is publishing the details in Hebrew. Here is the ABC report: In June 2010 Ynet, Israel’s largest online news site, posted a story on an unknown prisoner held in confinement in Ayalon Prison. The story was then removed from the site, but the account is still available in the Israeli blogosphere. In December 2010 American blogger Richard Silverstein claimed that the prisoner was an Iranian general named Ali-Reza Asgari, supposedly abducted by the Mossad. A…
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Itamar Sha'altiel on the indispensable "Slippery Slope" blog noticed the following new bleep that appeared on YNET: "An inmate held in solitary confinement at Ayalon Prison committed suicide by hanging in his cell two weeks ago. The warden team that noticed him took him down and tried to revive him, but in vain. He was taken to the prison clinic and was pronounced dead. Unlike in earlier cases, the Prison Service did not release a press statement and no details were give of the man's identity. This is the 13th prisoner that managed to commit suicide in prison or in…
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