Another "prisoner x" is being held in Israel, it
has been cleared for publication by the Israel Military Censor.
Materials from the inquest into the death of Ben Zygier
suggest that a prisoner is currently being held under similar conditions,
Yedioth Ahronoth reported Tuesday.
"The investigation materials include specific procedures
applied in the cases of Section 15's former inhabitant (Yigal Amir) and that of
another prisoner held in Section 13," Zygier's attorney said. Section 13
is a similar wing to Section 15, according to the attorney.
Censors also authorized the publication of other details
from the investigation.
The probe suggests that a security camera installed in
Zygier's cell had been out of service on December 15, 2010 – the day the
prisoner killed himself. The camera had been positioned to film footage from
near the toilet – where Zygier had taken his life.
The camera did not transmit footage to the control room, but
only to the supervisor's office. This room had not been manned at the time due
to a personnel shortage.
"There were constant complaints about it," one
prison guard said during his interrogation. Other witnesses said they had
reported the malfunction to their supervisors months before Zygier's suicide.
But the camera was not fixed.
C., the prison's tech officer testified he had not been
aware of the malfunction. Had he known, he would have solved it "that very
day," he said. B., the control room technician said he only learned of the
fault a day after Zygier's suicide.
M., a prison guard who was questioned under caution, said he
had left the supervisor's room at 5:52 pm and went into the control room.
There, he had to monitor several cameras at the same time, in addition to those
in Section 15.
No one noticed
But this was not the only failure. The control room was
manned by only four guards instead of five, and at times only three officers
were present.
According to the investigation, one of the guards was absent
between the hours 6 pm and 7:40 pm. These were the "critical" hours,
Zygier's lawyers claim, pointing to the fact that the prisoner had entered the
bathroom for the last time at 6:45 pm. By 8:19 pm, he was found dead in his
cell.
It was also revealed that M., the guard that was personally
tasked with monitoring Zygier's movements, testified that he was well into his
second consecutive shift "which he had asked for personal
considerations" at the time of Zygier's suicide.
Footage from one of the cameras shows that Zygier had been
fiddling with an object for about 20 minutes. He was later seen being still for
a relatively long amount of time. The footage also shows Zygier dying after
hanging himself with a sheet. This was never observed by the guards on the day
itself.
"Had the inspector's room been manned at the time of
the event and before it, and had the cameras been in order, I would surely have
noticed Zygier's preparations for his suicide and thus prevented it,"
officer M. said in his testimony.
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