19^th February 2013
The Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry (ECAJ) has welcomed announce­ments by the Aus­trali­an and Israeli gov­ern­ments of further inquiries into the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing the death of the late Ben Zygier, a dual Israeli and Aus­trali­an citizen who had immig­rated to Israel in the early 2000’s and reportedly died while in custody in Israel in December 2010.

“We welcome the fact that the Israeli Parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defence Sub­com­mit­tee for Intel­li­gence and the Israeli State Attor­ney’s office, part of the Ministry of Justice, have both announced that they will be con­duct­ing invest­ig­a­tions into the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing Ben Zygier’s death,” said ECAJ President, Dr Danny Lamm.
“We also welcome the inquiries being under­taken by Australia’s Foreign Minister, Bob Carr, within the Depart­ment of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the fact that he has invited the Israeli author­it­ies to have an input into those inquiries”.
“We look forward to the official inquiries pub­lish­ing concrete inform­a­tion about the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing the death of Ben Zygier in the hope that it will put further rumour and spec­u­la­tion to rest and bring some comfort to his still-grieving family and friends.”

Contact:
Peter Wertheim AM | Executive Director
phone: 02 8353 8500 | m: 0408 160 904 | fax 02 9361 5888 e: [email protected] |