Earlier in the year we learned that Israel had disappeared an Australian citizen and detained him in total secrecy until he killed himself. At the time they said he was their only secret prisoner. They lied:
Israel is holding a second unidentified security prisoner in conditions of extreme secrecy, according to court documents released this week in relation to Prisoner X, the Australian-Israeli secret agent who hanged himself in jail in 2010 and whose case caused a sensation when it was exposed earlier this year.
The existence of another top-secret prisoner was acknowledged in the Israeli parliament on Wednesday, although no details were disclosed.
But former foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman described it as "an exceptionally grave case", and the lawyer for Ben Zygier, who was dubbed Prisoner X when details of his case were revealed in February, said the second prisoner's alleged offences were "sensational".
Israel insisted it was acting within the law in regard to secret prisoners held in isolation and whose identity is concealed even from prison guards.
Israel calls itself the Middle East's only democracy. But democracies don't do this. Democracies charge people publicly and try them in open court. They do not disappear them and detain them secretly without charge or trial. But then, democracies don't have military censorship of the media either...
