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Itongadol.- Psychiatrists diagnosed Ben Zygier as emotionally distressed, and there is prima facie evidence that his death was caused by failures by the Israel Prison Service, a report cleared for publication by the Rishon Lezion Magistrates Court revealed on Thursday morning.
According do the document, there is evidence to show which specific IPS employees are responsible for Zygier\’s death.
However, in the wake of the court\’s decision to release the circumstances of Zygier\’s death, the Ministry of Justice released what appeared to be a decision taken beforehand, not to bring criminal charges against any of the IPS personnel or other persons who had responsibility for Zygier\’s safety.
The decision, signed by head prosecutor Moshe Lador, said that despite "deficiencies" in Zygier\’s situation, the issue would only be submitted to the IPS itself to decide at its own discretion whether to take internal disciplinary measures.
Lador said that in light of the totality of the circumstances there was insufficient evidence to prove criminal charges to the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt.
Lador noted in his decision that the courts have complimented the IPS in recent years in their efforts to reduce the number of suicides.
He also noted that the number of suicides have in fact gone down substantially.
According to court the document, Zygier or "Prisoner X" met several times with a psychiatrist and was diagnosed to be emotionally distressed at Level B. The court said that during his detention Zygier met 57 times with a social worker, who wardens would call when they saw the prisoner crying in his cell. The social worker said that during one visit to see Zygier, the prisoner had a cut in his hand, which he said he made in order to relieve the stress he was under.
The document also stated that on the day Zygier\’s death, at 11:10 a.m., his wife and son entered his cell escorted by an IPS officer. Almost an hour later he came back in to walk them out, and saw that the prisoner was crying, angry, and disturbed.
The document further stated that IPS officers knew for some time about problems with two of the cameras in Zygier\’s cell. They said that an infrared camera was old "therefore visibility in the cell when lights are out is zero." Two of the officers testified that they complained about the faulty cameras but were told that there was no budget to fix them.
The report by Judge Daphna Blatman Kedrai, president of the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court, places blame directly on the Prisons Service, saying it failed in its responsibilities toward the 34-year-old Australian- Israeli citizen.
“At the conclusion of the investigation I found evidence to blame officials in the IPS [Israel Prisons Service] for causing the death of the deceased,” she said.
Blatman Kedrai said that the Prisons Service was given clear instructions to prevent Zygier from committing suicide, which “were known to the authorities responsible for supervision and oversight. These instructions were not carried out, and the window of opportunity for suicide that was created resulted… in the suicide of the deceased.”
The judge said that in light of the evidence, she did not see a reason to close the case, leaving the door open for possible prosecution of prison officials for negligence, even though the report rules out the possibility that someone else was involved in Zygier’s death.