A new documentary aims to shed more light on the case of Prisoner X, who was identified as Australian man Ben Zygier. He'd been working as a spy for Mossad but his alleged crimes remain shrouded in secrecy.
For hours on end, the prisoner would bounce a tennis ball off the floor and wall of his cell. Over and over. A ritual to pass the time.
"They sent him to jail. They hermetically sealed him. It's like he doesn't exist," Bormann told ABC iview's Prisoner X.The contact had scant details about what the man was supposed to have done, but he did have a name which he shared with Bormann. The name was Ben Alon. "He was really charming, really engaging. I do have one of my clearest memories of him just laughing uproariously," he said.To this day, Epstein finds it difficult to picture that joyous youth as Mossad spy, but he can see how someone like Zygier might be tempted to follow that path.
But aside from his conspicuous qualities, there were hidden flaws to Zygier's personality that Mossad would learn of only when it was too late. Despite having no formal training in accountancy, Zygier was hired as a bookkeeper by an Italian-based firm that manufactured electronic parts and had contracts with Iran.At some point, Zygier was reported to have overstepped the bounds of his role and was fired by the company. His Mossad superior suggested the newly married Zygier would be more suited to a desk job — something that would put the ambitious agent further from his goal of being the Jewish James Bond.
Zygier was being accused of something gravely serious. Something which, to this day, remains the subject of considerable conjecture. "We picture them to be like Rambo, but at the end of the day he was a skinny, young kid. You wouldn't give him a second look," he said.Zygier's situation was about to get more complicated as he sat in extreme isolation in Ayalon Prison.
The timing could not have been worse for Zygier, who had already attracted ASIO's attention for using his Australian passport to spy for Mossad. Somehow, in a supposedly suicide-proof cell monitored 24 hours a day by security cameras, Ben Zygier had taken his own life.It seems almost impossible that someone as closely watched as Prisoner X could be allowed to take his own life in his cell in full view of CCTV cameras.Photo shows A black and white poster with a side profile of a man walking but his head is overlayed with a newspaper clipping.
It was more than two years after Zygier's death — and after the ABC had identified him as Prisoner X — that Israeli authorities officially acknowledged the incident and lifted suppression orders that had prevented Israeli media from reporting on the case. Ziad Al Homsi told the ABC in 2013 he was recruited by Mossad to exhume the remains of Israeli tank crewmen.But Hezbollah seemed less concerned about it. Ziad al-Homsi, who had initially been sentenced to 15 years in prison, was a free man before the identity of Prisoner X was even known.
Ben Zygier Mossad Agent Israel Intelligence Spying Mystery Hezbollah Ayalon Prison
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Fugitive former mayor Alice Guo deported from IndonesiaExtradition to Philippines could face complications over prisoner exchange with Australian Gregor Haas
Read more »
Can Ben O’Connor hold onto Vuelta lead and enter Australian cycling history books?The Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale rider’s lead is perilous but with a week to go he remains in red and in bike racing anything can happen
Read more »
Can Ben O’Connor hold on to Vuelta lead and enter Australian cycling history books?The Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale rider’s lead is perilous but with a week to go he remains in red and in bike racing anything can happen
Read more »
Australian chef Maggie Beer in hospital after fall at South Australian homeIn a statement on social media on Sunday night, her family said she suffered minor bone fractures and related injuries.
Read more »
Tickets on sale: It’s the Big Australian vs the Australian governmentSo intense has the standoff between BHP and the Albanese government become that the parties are even contesting who started the fight.
Read more »
Australian house prices: All sectors of the Australian economy are being hit by housingAustralia’s housing woes are causing policymakers, investors and households to make decisions they might not ordinarily make. But to fix it, we need to escape a vicious cycle.
Read more »