Yigal Amir, convicted of murdering Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin in 1995, may find himself back in total isolation, because of what the Prisons Service said was a threat to his life.
Amir was recently allowed out of solitary confinement in order to participate in a study session, but on Wednesday a court began considering a petition by the Prisons Service to put Amir back into solitary, because of threats against his life by another prisoner.
But Amir's lawyer, Ariel Atari, said that this would be unfair to Amir. Atari told Arutz 7 that the claim by the Service was “one of the most ridiculous I have ever heard. If anyone is threatened, the person that should be isolated is the one doing the threatening, not the victim. The Prisons Service apparently thinks differently, and is using this as another excuse to punish Amir.”
Atari said that the threatener was a prisoner who was mentally ill, and who was in the habit of threatening everyone. “Based on this sending Amir back into solitary is unjustified.”
Atari said that after 16 years, he had finally managed to make some progress in easing Amir's conditions, and he did not intend to back down. “The Prisons Service apparently wants to turn back time and prevent him from continuing in his learning session with other prisoners. We will not let this happen,” he said.
Atari said that he was still working on trying to get Amir to be allowed to pray in a minyan, a prayer quorum. “We need a lot of patience for this battle. For now we managed to secure the learning sessions with three other prisoners, and we are working to require the Prisons Service to provide Amir with his rights to pray in a minyan,” the attorney said.