Reports have suggested Ben Zygier may have been about to divulge details of his dealings in Australian passports. Picture: Twitter Source: The Australian
AUSTRALIA has not made a single request for information about the Ben Zygier case since news of the alleged spy's incarceration and death in an Israeli prison broke publicly this week.
Amid a storm of speculation about the reason for the suspected Mossad agent's jailing, including the claim he may have been about to divulge information about Australian passport fraud, a senior Israeli official said Canberra was unlikely to make a request because the Gillard government already had detailed knowledge of the case.
"Every day that goes by you see how deeply involved they were," the official told The Weekend Australian.
"They interrogated him, they suspected him, they knew many things.
"It is clear they were in the know long before he died.
"Then when the coffin was returned to Australia, they knew he was not some backpacker who got lost trekking."
Reports this week have said the 34-year-old father of two from Melbourne was under investigation by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, along with other Israeli-Australian dual citizens, in relation to possible misuse of Australian passports.
Israel's Channel 10 said that, in 2009, Australian intelligence officers interrogated Zygier about trips he took to Iran, Lebanon and Syria. The report alleged the case was leaked to an Australian reporter who phoned Zygier and questioned him about his alleged links to the Mossad.
The reporter, Jason Koutsoukis, told Israel's Channel 2 TV that Zygier strongly denied the allegations. Zygier was arrested shortly after they spoke.
Australian intelligence authorities were made aware of his arrest by the Israelis just days after the Dubai government released information showing that fraudulent Australian passports had been used by Mossad agents in the execution of Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh on January 20, 2010.
Report have suggested Zygier may have been about to divulge details of his dealings in Australian passports to either Australian intelligence authorities or the media. Zygier, who also used the names Ben Alon and Ben Allen, was suspected of returning to Australia from Israel and changing his name and passport.
Zygier was caught between two intelligence services, Israeli sources said. Mossad believed he was on the "verge" of passing information to the Australians.
Soon after his return to Israel, Mossad's domestic counterpart, Shin Bet, swooped and Zygier was arrested and taken to Ayalon Prison in Ramla.
Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported yesterday that the Zygier family had recently signed a deal with Israel to accept "several million shekels" in compensation.
The paper quoted one of Zygier's lawyers as saying Israeli authorities had threatened the Australian, while he was in solitary confinement, that unless he pleaded guilty, he was likely to be sentenced to a long prison term and would be shunned by his family and the Jewish community.
Zygier's family has not commented since ABC TV's Foreign Correspondent broke the story on Tuesday.
Foreign Minister Bob Carr's spokesman said Senator Carr had not made any representations to the Israeli government about the case in the past week.
Stephen Smith, foreign minister at the time of Zygier's arrest in early 2010, also refused to comment yesterday, saying he was "not proposing to be drawn on any of the issues" until a review of the case was complete.
It is understood that senior staff in Kevin Rudd's office were never briefed about Zygier's arrest and detention nor the circumstances of his death in December 2010, which suggests Mr Rudd was also kept in the dark about the affair when he was prime minister and, later, foreign minister.
Senator Carr said Canberra first learned of Zygier's arrest "through intelligence channels" on February 24, 2010.
The fathers of two Australians whose passports were used by Mossad agents have declined to comment on the Zygier case, with one denying any connection between the events.
Lawyer Harvey Bruce, a leading member of the orthodox South Caulfield Hebrew congregation, is the father of Joshua Bruce, who had been studying in Jerusalem for seven years when his passport was used in the assassination of Mabhouh.
Mr Bruce said he was "not at all" happy to discuss the case.
"There's no connection as far as I'm concerned," he said.
The office of Joe Krycer, father of Tel Aviv speech therapist Joshua Aaron Krycer, whose passport was also used in 2010, said he would not be commenting.
Mr Krycer works in the same Caulfield South building as Zygier's father, Geoffrey. Mr Krycer is Victorian bequest director for the Jewish National Fund, which raises money for land conservation projects in Israel, while Mr Zygier is executive director of the B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission.
Some people in Israel remain suspicious about the cause of Zygier's death in a supposedly suicide-proof cell.
Zygier's lawyer, Avigdor Feldman, said he found it "strange" that it took 18 months to make a finding of suicide.
A leading international expert on Mossad said Australia should demand proof the death was suicide.
Gordon Thomas, author of Gideon's Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad, said: "That is a legitimate question to ask at government level."
Thomas said "heads will roll" inside Mossad due to the fact that the treatment of Zygier leaked to the media.
He said in recent years there had been "a new push" in Mossad to use passports from other countries, and Mossad stole, bought or made foreign passports.
In March 2004, two suspected Mossad agents were arrested in New Zealand and later convicted for fraudulently trying to obtain passports from the country, prompting diplomatic sanctions.
Australia's ambassador to Israel, Andrea Faulkner, yesterday would not say whether Australian officials had asked Israel for camera footage from Zygier's cell to verify the cause of death.
"Please contact Canberra," she said.
Additional Reporting: Rachel Baxendale
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