March 6, 2013

SYDNEY, Australia (JTA) – Ben Zygier, the Australian-Israeli dual national known previously as “Prisoner X,” worked for the Israeli government, Australia’s foreign minister confirmed for the first time.

But Minister of Foreign Affairs Bob Carr refused to say whether the Melbourne-born Zionist youth movement graduate worked for the Mossad, Israel’s secret service, as has been speculated since an Australian Broadcasting Corp. investigation last month linked Zygier to the infamous “Prisoner X.”  

Releasing the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s internal report Wednesday into the mysterious suicide of Zygier while in custody in a maximum-security prison in Israel in December 2010, Carr criticized the Australian authorities handling of the case as ”unsatisfactory.”

He also warned that Australia’s government will react angrily if there is proof that Zygier – who held three Australian passports under three aliases – abused the integrity of Australian passports. 

”We won’t settle for Australian passports being abused in this way,” Carr said at a press conference Wednesday.

“If the world thinks Australian passports are routinely debauched by another country then Australians presenting their passports all over the world could well place their lives in danger,” Carr said. “We can’t live with that.”

The report reveals that Australian intelligence agents found out about Zygier’s arrest on Feb. 16, 2010, and told senior officials just over a week later. ASIO, Australia’s spy agency, told officials in then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s office and then-Foreign Minister Stephen Smith’s office on March 1, 2010, according to the report. 

But Rudd and Smith said Wednesday they had no recollection of being briefed on the Zygier case.

The report said Zygier received more than 50 visits from family in the 10 months he was incarcerated before he apparently committed suicide on Dec. 15, 2010.

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