Justice Eli Beitan of the Be'er Sheva District Court has suspended the Prison Services punishment of assassin Yigal Amir. Amir was punished for giving interviews to the media.
Amir was interviewed in October of 2008 regarding his assassination of Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin. In the interviews Amir discussed his motives for killing Rabin, dismissed claims that he was inspired to kill by rabbis and mentioned opportunities to kill Rabin that he had not taken advantage of.
Following the partial release of the interviews, Prison Services workers revoked Amir's visitation with his wife and other privileges, and moved him from the Rimonim prison in the Sharon region to Rimon prison in the south. The full interviews were never released due to a public outcry against giving Amir a platform to air his views.
Beitan agreed with the contention by Amir's attorneys that the punishment meted out to Amir was disproportional and was much more severe than punishments given to other prisoners for similar crimes. He point out that convicted terrorist killer Marwan Barghouti was given a lighter punishment for the same violation of prison rules.
Beitan granted the prosecution's request to delay a hearing on the matter for two weeks, but suspended the punishment in the meantime.
Amir's attorney, Adi Kedar, expressed satisfaction with the verdict. “The court recognized the substantial defects in the entire punishment process,” he said. The decision to suspend the Prison Services punishment in its entirety was rare, he added, saying, “I've been in the legal world for ten years, and I had never seen such a thing, that the judge canceled all of the punitive measures.”
Kedar argued that Amir's talks with reporters were legal, and said he should never have been punished. Now that the punishment has been suspended, Amir hopes to meet with his wife Larissa, he said.