Yigal Amir
Yigal AmirFlash90

A party dedicated to securing the release of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin, Yigal Amir, has been allowed to register for the upcoming Knesset election.

The Mishpat Tzedek (Fair Trial) party, headed by Yigal Amir’s wife, Larissa Amir (nee Trembovler), registered to run for the Knesset on Tuesday, after the party promised not to publicly back the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin.

Mrs. Amir told the Central Elections Committee Tuesday that the party, whose full name is the “Mishpat Tzedek Party for Judicial Reform and the Release of Yigal Amir”, was dedicated to securing a retrial for Yigal Amir as well as “all those people who deserve it, all the innocent people sitting in prison.”

Fourteen candidates are included in the party’s Knesset slate, with Yigal Amir’s wife in the top spot, and Yigal Amir’s mother, Geula Amir, in the sixth spot.

In November 1995, Amir, then a 25-year-old law student at Bar Ilan University, shot and killed Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin as he left a rally in Tel Aviv.

Amir confessed to the killing, saying that he had murdered Rabin to prevent the continuation of the Oslo process with the Palestinian Authority, and was sentenced to life plus 14 years in prison.

Despite his confession, some have argued that Amir was not actually responsible for Rabin’s death. Earlier this year, Bar Ilan professor Mordechai Kedar sparked controversy when he claimed that Amir was not the assassin.

Amir’s wife, who married Amir a decade after the assassination, has lobbied for his release.

Working in conjunction with his wife, Amir last year sought to promote the establishment of a political party dedicated to securing his release from prison, allegedly soliciting the involvement of Israeli rapper Yoav Eliasi, better known by his stage name “Hatzel” (The Shadow). Eliasi reportedly rejected the offer to help lead the party.

The party, tentatively named “Nura Deliba”, was not registered for either of the Knesset elections in 2019.

Attorney Eyal Globus of the Central Elections Committee ruled last month that the new party, renamed Mishpat Tzedek, could be allowed to run in the March 2nd election so long as it does not condone the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin.