Intelligence: Yigal Amir tried contacting right-wing activists

Katsav rules out any chance of Amir receiving a presidential pardon.

By YAAKOV KATZ, GREER FAY CASHMAN
yigal amir court298 88aj (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
yigal amir court298 88aj
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
YAAKOV KATZ and GREER FAY CASHMAN Yigal Amir should remain in solitary confinement due to intelligence reports indicating he has tried to contact right-wing extremists from behind prison walls, the Prisons Service (IPS) told the Tel Aviv District Court on Monday. The IPS petitioned the court on Monday, as it does every six months, to extend an order to keep Amir in solitary confinement where he is not allowed unsupervised contact with visitors or other inmates. Amir is currently serving a life term in prison for the 1995 assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. According to the intelligence, recently obtained by the police, Amir has tried contacting far-right activists with whom he shares a common ideology. The IPS further argued that Amir's life might be at risk if he were allowed to socialize with and roam freely among other inmates. "Taking Amir out of confinement would put him at risk since other prisoners might want to avenge Rabin's assassination," the IPS wrote in its request to the court. Meanwhile Monday, President Moshe Katsav said he would not consider any plea for clemency or leniency by Amir. Katsav, who met on Sunday with Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, told reporters he was not prepared to discuss the subject. Livni said any decisions regarding Amir's future were not hers to make, but admitted to being outraged by his request to have his sentence reduced. Livni, who on Sunday took over responsibility for the Israel Broadcasting Authority from Vice Premier Ehud Olmert, was asked what she was going to do about implementation of the Dinor reforms. Before she does anything said Livni, she is going to familiarize herself with all the data. The government has already approved the reforms of which she was in favor, she said, adding that a representative of the Justice Ministry had sat in on the Dinor committee s deliberations.