'Al-Jarida' says Australian-born Zygier, named abroad as Mossad agent jailed by Israel, offered Dubai info on killing of Hamas leader in 2010; Australian sources tell media "he may well have been about to blow whistle."
By JPOST.COM STAFFMabhouh Zygier(photo credit: Courtesy, Reuters)
Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida is quoting "Western sources" as saying that the foreign-born prisoner held in isolation in an Israeli jail before apparently committing suicide was part of a Mossad crew responsible for the assassination of a Hamas official in Dubai three years ago.Also Thursday, Fairfax Media, which owns the Sydney Morning Herald, cited Australian security officials as saying they suspect the prisoner may have been on the brink of leaking information on Israeli security operations which included the use of fraudulent Australian passports.Click here for full JPost coverage of this storyABC News in Australia on Tuesday named the prisoner as Melbourne native Ben Zygier, and said that he had been recruited by Mossad after making aliyah some 10 years ago. He had been 34 years old and married with two children at the time of his death, ABC said. Israel on Wednesday confirmed that it had been holding a prisoner under a false identity for "security reasons", and that he had committed suicide, but did not give a name or acknowledge any Mossad connection. According to the Kuwaiti report, Zygier contacted the Dubai government after the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who was found dead in his Dubai hotel room in January 2010.He reportedly offered information on the assassination operation in return for Dubai protection. Al-Jarida said that Zygier had subsequently been seized by Israeli forces and imprisoned in such a way that even his guards were not aware of his true identity. Meanwhile, an Australian security official told Fairfax Media: ''[Zygier] may well have been about to blow the whistle, but he never got the chance."Leading Israeli lawyer Avigdor Feldman told Channel 10 television on Thursday that he had met with Prisoner X on the day before his death, and that he had "met with a balanced person, given the tragic outcome, who was rationally weighing his legal options."
