court: zygier sad after family visit on day of death – jerusalem post

7/30/2019 Court: Zygier sad after family visit on day of death Jerusalem Post

1/4

Court: Zygier sad after family visit on day of death

Jerusalem Post

Ben Zygier, the former Mossad operative known as Prisoner X was seen crying and

emotionally distraught following a visit from his wife and daughter just hours before he killed

himself, according to details of a court document made public on Thursday.

The document also says that at the end of the hour-long meeting Zygier tried to pass his wife a

note but was denied by a prison official. He then tore up the note in rage, before his wife was

allowed back into his cell to speak to him alone for a few minutes. After she left the cell,

Zygiers wife was in tears, the document said, adding that it appears that during the meeting

Zygier received a message that left him distraught.

That same day, wardens received what they considered an out of the ordinary call from

Zygiers attorney Moshe Mazor, who asked if his client was doing alright and if he could speak

to him. They put the call through and Mazor spoke to his client, but did not update the Israel

Prison Service (IPS) officials about anything out of the ordinary after the call.

The revelations are part of a December 2012 report by Judge Daphne Blatman-Kadrai,

president of the Rishon Letzion Magistrates Court, which placed blame for Zygiers death

directly on the IPS, saying that it caused his death by failing to carry out its responsibilities to

ensure he did not cause himself harm.

Though much of the report was made public in February, only on Thursday was the rest cleared

for publication.

The report, which is based mainly on testimony taken from IPS officers, both senior and

low-level, paints a picture of the 34-year-old Zygier as a man who IPS officials knew full-well

was emotionally distraught and in danger of harming himself. From the beginning, psychiatrists

for the IPS ruled that he was a prisoner in need of supervision level B, requiring that he be

checked up on every 30 minutes.

IPS officers testified that Zygier was visited by a social worker some 57 times during the time he

was in Ayalon Prison between March and December 2010. The officers said that they would call

the social worker whenever they would observe Zygier crying in his cell, and that she would

typically come and visit with him.

The document includes testimony from the social worker about a time when during a visit she

noticed a cut on Zygiers hand, which he told her he made in order to relieve some of the stress

he was under.

On December 15, the day that Zygier was found dead in his cell, hanging from a bed sheet tiedto his bathroom window, IPS officers called the social worker to tell her about Zygiers

1 / 4


2/4

distraught condition after his family visit. The court document says that since it was not the first

time that the prisoner was disturbed and crying after a phone call or family visit, she didnt see

the emotional outburst as a special incident and didnt give an instruction in kind.

The document also states that on November 29, 2010, Zygier was seen by a doctor sent by theIPS, who ruled that his emotional state was in decline and he posed a threat to himself. On

December 5th, Zygier was seen by a psychiatrist, who he reportedly told that he stopped taking

the antidepressants he was prescribed. That psychiatrist ruled that Zygiers situation hadnt

changed and that he wasnt prone to suicidal tendencies.

Based on the testimony of ten IPS officials, including the then-head of Ayalon prison

Commissioner ABS, the document concludes that the IPS failed to carry out guidelines that

could have prevented Zygiers death, and bear direct responsibility for the tragedy.

The officers interviewed by the court stated that they were short on staff, with only 4 peopleinstead of the usual 5 manning the operations room, which surveys footage from 330 cameras.

The report goes into detail about the conduct of MA, an officer who was in charge of the

control room, a separate command post which contains far fewer cameras. The document

states that M.A. had left the room shortly before Zygier committed suicide, and was in the

operations room when he took his own life. The document states that MA left his log notebook

back in the control room and did not fill it in during the time he was absent. In addition, it says

that while the operations room does include the footage from the cameras in Zygiers room,

camera 116, which covered the center of Zygiers cell and part of his bathroom was not

connected to the screens in the operations room, a fact that was known to the officers on duty

beforehand.

The document states that MA left the control room at 5:52pm and went to the operations room,

leaving behind his shift log. At 8 p.m. he felt something was amiss and sent an officer to check

on Zygier by intercom. He then went himself to to the control room, at which point he saw Zygier

hanging from the shower.

The court document says that at 6:54pm Zygier went to the bathroom and until he was found

at 8:13pm the situation was suspicious and should have drawn the attention of the supervising

officers.

Since there is no record in the log during this time, the document states that there is no way to

prove that the officer even looked at footage of Zygiers room at all from the time he left the

control room till Zygier was found dead.

In addition to the fact that camera 116?s footage couldnt be seen in the operations room, the

report also states that the cells infrared camera, which would automatically turn on after the

cells lights went out, was very old and provided zero visibility of what was going on in the

cell. The report said that officers had brought this up to one of their commanders who told them

that it would require a civilian contractor to come in for a half a day to fix the camera. The

commander told the two officers to write a letter to his commanders, which he would forward on,adding that he never received a letter from the two officers. In addition, the report includes

2 / 4


3/4

testimony from officers who said they were told that there was no budget to fix the cameras.

In her conclusion, Judge Blatman-Kadrai states during the time of the incident the measures

needed to carry out the special supervision of the deceased were not followed: the control room

was not occupied, the supervisors journal was not filled out every thirty minutes from 17:52 untilthe body was found, it was known that camera 116 from the cell was not transmitting footage to

the operations room at the time and that the ability of the cameras to film in a dark room were

insufficient.

She rules that while Zygier may have been determined to end his life no matter what defending

the deceased from such possibilities is done through command procedures which were not

carried out, adding that since a prisoner with Zygiers profile could be expected to try and end

his life, a meticulous series of steps must be taken to ensure he does not do so, and that the

failure to do so could have legal significance.

In the wake of the courts decision to release the full content of the document, the Justice

Ministry on Thursday released what appears to be a decision taken beforehand, not to bring

criminal charges against any of the Israel Prison Service personnel or other persons who had

responsibility for Zygiers safety.

The decision, signed by head prosecutor Moshe Lador, said that despite deficiencies in

Zygiers situation, the issue would only be submitted to the IPS itself to decide at its own

discretion whether to take internal disciplinary measures.

Lador said that in light of the totality of the circumstances there was insufficient evidence toprove criminal charges to the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt.

Lador noted in his decision that the courts have complimented the IPS in recent years in their

efforts to reduce the number of suicides.

He also noted that the number of suicides have in fact gone down substantially.

In keeping with the publication of the ruling by the magistrates court on the cause of death and

in light of the lessons that have already been implemented in regards to this incident, the IPS

said it will examine the state prosecutors findings on this matter.

The IPS added this it would like to emphasize the tremendous effort undertaken in recent years

to reduce the number of suicides among those in its custody. In this matter, the figures indicate

a dramatic drop in suicides, it said.

Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report

3 / 4


4/4

Source Article from

http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Prisoner-X-report-points-to-suicidal-tendencies-negligence-

311031

Court: Zygier sad after family visit on day of death Jerusalem Post

http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNGbFx_G4jS_-Qa7YnioPAXs4C16mA&url=http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Prisoner-X-report-points-to-suicidal-tendencies-negli

gence-311031

https://news.google.com/news/feeds?pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&topic=w&output=rss

World Google News

Google News

https://ssl.gstatic.com/news-static/img/logo/en_us/news.gif

Waddywood.com Court: Zygier sad after family visit on day of death Jerusalem Post

4 / 4
http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Prisoner-X-report-points-to-suicidal-tendencies-negligence-311031http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Prisoner-X-report-points-to-suicidal-tendencies-negligence-311031http://www.waddywood.com/court-zygier-sad-after-family-visit-on-day-of-death-jerusalem-post/http://www.waddywood.com/court-zygier-sad-after-family-visit-on-day-of-death-jerusalem-post/http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Prisoner-X-report-points-to-suicidal-tendencies-negligence-311031http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Prisoner-X-report-points-to-suicidal-tendencies-negligence-311031

court: zygier sad after family visit on day of death – jerusalem post

Documents