A group of MKs will investigate the “Prisoner X” case, the Knesset announced on
Sunday night.
The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Subcommittee for
Intelligence plans to hold an “intensive examination” of the circumstances
surrounding the prison suicide of Ben Zygier, an alleged Australian Mossad
agent.
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Meanwhile, a number of MKs called for the state comptroller or a
government inquiry commission to probe the events.MK Uri Ariel (Bayit Yehudi),
the chairman of the control committee in the last five months of the 18th
Knesset, requested that the temporary Knesset House Committee reinstate the
panel and put him at its head, in order to discuss the incident and vote to form
a government inquiry commission.
In letters to temporary Knesset Speaker
Binyamin Ben-Eliezer (Labor) and interim Knesset House Committee chairman Ze’ev
Elkin (Likud Beytenu), Ariel explained that “a temporary chairman for the
control committee must be appointed in light of the difficult findings in this
case.”
“There was a slip-up here,” Ariel told Army Radio. “We don’t
understand what happened here; therefore the Knesset needs to have its say and
form an inquiry commission.”
MK Nachman Shai (Labor) called for State
Comptroller Joseph Shapira to investigate the “Prisoner X” case.
“We are
witnessing failures in many aspects of this incident: Intelligence, legal,
public, media and parliament,” Shai stated.
The Labor MK warned that the
Australian government will soon publicize further information on the case and
Israel will be “an empty vessel” facing international public
opinion.
“Time is a crucial factor, and I demand that the state
comptroller limit the time of the investigation and commit to publicizing his
findings for the public to see as soon as possible,” Shai said.