Sixteen and a half years after he entered prison for helping his brother Yigal
Amir plot the assassination of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, Hagai Amir
is set to walk out of Ayalon Prison in Ramle on Friday a free man.
Amir
was sentenced to 16 years in prison for conspiracy to commit murder and
possession of a firearm for his part in helping his brother plan the
assassination of Rabin at a peace rally in Tel Aviv on November 4,
1995.
In 2006, he was sentenced to an extra year in prison for threats
made against the life of former prime minister Ariel Sharon.
Amir was
supposed to be released a few months earlier because of prison overcrowding, but
due to the Gilad Schalit prisoner release, there was no longer a need to afford
him early release.
Now 43 years old, the Herzliya native has never
expressed remorse for his role in the assassination.
His brother Yigal
remains in solitary confinement serving a life imprisonment for killing
Rabin.
Contacted by The Jerusalem Post on Thursday, the Shin Bet (Israel
Security Agency) said they would not comment on whether or not they still
consider Amir a threat to the public or if they will perform surveillance on him
after his release.
Rabin’s granddaughter Noa Rothman (nee Ben-Artzi)
posted a message on her Facebook page on Thursday that read “Hagai Amir will be
released tomorrow from prison. This is how it is in a democracy, I know, but
what can you do? The heart is irrational. The heart burns, especially on a day
like this... Because 16 and a half years have gone by and it’s just as painful
and insulting like it was yesterday.”
Elsewhere, in an interview with
Israel Radio on Thursday, Kadima MK and former Shin Bet chief Avi Dichter said
that Hagai’s brother Yigal should have been executed for killing Rabin.