Brother of Rabin assassin set to be released from jail

Haggai Amir

Yigal Amir's brother, Haggai Amir, who was sentenced to 16 years for conspiracy to kill former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, will go free on Friday.

Haggai Amir, who was convicted of conspiring to kill Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 along with his brother, Yigal Amir, is slated to be released from prison on Friday.

Amir served 16 years in prison, the majority of which he spent alone in a cell in Ayalon Prison in Ramleh, and has never expressed regret for his crime.

In addition to his original sentence, Amir was sentenced to an additional year of prison time for threatening the life of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. In 2004, during the period leading up to Israel's unilateral disengagement from Gaza in 2005, Amir told his jailers that he could "pick up the phone of arrange that someone kill and blow up Sharon."

During Haggai's trial, it was revealed that he, his brother Yigal and his friend Dror Adani conspired to commit the murder, exploring several possible ways to kill the prime minister and conducting surveillance around Rabin's home ahead of the murder.

Amir was scheduled to be granted early release from jail a year and a half ago, due to overcrowding in the prisons. However, following the release of some 1,000 prisoners following the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange deal, Israel's Prison Service Commission Aharon Franco decided against releasing prisoners early.