Israel moved Yigal Amir, the assassin of former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, to another prison early on Friday and revoked his privileges after unauthorized interviews he gave to the country’s two main commercial TV channels caused a public outcry.
Amir, 38, was moved from the Ayalon prison, northeast of Tel Aviv and near his family’s residence, to the more remote Eshel prison, near Beersheba in southern Israel.
He also had his telephone and TV privileges revoked, as well as his conjugal visits with his wife, Larissa Trimbobler, and his family visitations, for at least three months, Israeli media reported. He will also be held in solitary confinement.
Israel’s Channel 10 and Channel 2 broadcast excerpts of interviews they conducted with Amir during their main news broadcast on Thursday night. They announced they would broadcast their full interviews at primetime on Friday.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak was one of several who expressed outrage at the channels for giving Amir, a radical Jew who assassinated Rabin in 1995 for his peace moves with the Palestinians, a platform to express his extremist views.
“Yigal Amir deserves to rot in prison until the end of his days and must not be allowed to join the public-media debate in any way,” Barak said.
Channel 2 subsequently announced on Friday morning that it would not air the full interview. Channel 10 was deliberating whether to air its own interview or to cancel as well.
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