[2][3] These reports claimed that the man was confined in total seclusion, was being housed in the cell that was built for Yigal Amir, the assassin of Yitzhak Rabin, and that he was being held in such secrecy that even his guards did not know his identity.

[6] Journalist Trevor Bormann of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) investigated the story for about 10 months after receiving a tip during a visit to Israel in April 2012.

Bormann reported that Zygier had been a Mossad agent before being imprisoned, and was found by prison guards hanged in his cell on 15 December 2010 and buried at the Chevra Kadisha Jewish Cemetery, in Melbourne, Victoria.

[8] Zygier, who came from a prominent Jewish family in Melbourne, had made aliyah (emigrated to Israel) fourteen years before his suicide, taken the more Israeli name Ben Alon, and was married with two children.

After completing his law studies, he made aliyah as part of Hashomer Hatzair in 1994 and volunteered at Kibbutz Gazit together with a group of other Australian Jews.

After completing his military service in the Israel Defense Forces, he was recruited into the Mossad in the early 2000s, and from 2003 to 2004 worked at the prestigious Herzog, Fox & Neeman law firm.

[14] According to a report by the German news magazine Der Spiegel, Zygier was originally enlisted into the service of the Mossad in 2003 and eventually served the organisation by entering the ranks of European companies doing business with Iran and Syria.

The reporter had come to believe based on his research that Zygier worked at one point for a front company in Europe run by the Mossad that sold defective electronic equipment to Iran.

[16] On 24 March 2013, Der Spiegel reported that, in a desperate attempt to return to the Mossad, Zygier had given a Hezbollah operative the names of two top Lebanese informants for Israel, Siad al-Homsi and Mustafa Ali Awadeh.

[18] According to an article in The Australian, the Zygier family was told very little about the nature of Ben's activities, but they were satisfied that his legal rights were being upheld by Israeli authorities.

[19] A report in the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida, citing "Western sources", said that Zygier was accused of offering to sell the names of the Mossad agents responsible for the assassination of Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh to the government of Dubai.

The report also stated that the Dubai government agreed to protect Zygier, but that Mossad officials discovered his whereabouts and kidnapped him so he could stand trial in Israel.

[24] Eight days later, after Dubai revealed details about the assassination of Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Israel informed Australia of Zygier's arrest.

[31] However, Israeli journalist Alon Ben-David, who is familiar with the case but is still bound by the gag order, suggested that "it's fair to assume that Zygier was charged with divulging state secrets to a foreign element", but noted he did not act out of malice, but out of distress.

[18] However, according to official court documents, Zygier had an emotional meeting with his wife on the day of his death in which she gave him difficult news, after which he was crying and distraught.

ABC's exposé claimed that a death certificate for a Ben Alon (the name Zygier adopted when he immigrated to Israel) was issued by a coroner at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute.

[41] Israel's Channel 10 TV news cited unnamed members of Zygier's rescue crew who claimed the inmate hanged himself in the bathroom, out of view of surveillance cameras.

[42] A photograph from surveillance footage during Yigal Amir's incarceration in Unit 15 appears to show a separate, adjacent room from the main cell containing a shower and bathroom.

[43] A supposed transcript of a phone call from the prison to the Magen David Adom emergency services was read aloud on Channel 10 news, in which the caller reportedly said, "he's hanged himself", and requested a mobile intensive care unit.

[44] Six weeks before the emergence of the ABC report, a lengthy inquiry by Israeli magistrate judge Daphna Blatman Kedrai concluded that it was suicide.

[46] In February 2013, in the face of mounting media scrutiny, 8 pages of a 28-page report prepared by Judge Kedrai at the conclusion of her inquiry in December 2012, was released to the public.

In the report Kedrai determined Zygier had died as the result of suicide, but found prison officers had contributed to the circumstances leading to his death.

As part of the agreement, the Israeli government was not to assume responsibility for the circumstances that led to his suicide, or any misconduct that may have taken place during the process of Zygier's recruitment to Mossad.

[48] Following the revelation, Knesset members Dov Khenin, Zehava Gal-On, and Ahmad Tibi in a public question time urged outgoing Israeli Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman to address the ABC report, and criticised the government's conduct.

The statement said that a dual national was held and imprisoned under a false name for security reasons, that he had hanged himself, and that a gag order had been in effect over the case.

[53] According to the Israeli news website Ynet, Zygier's attorneys and family were required to sign non-disclosure agreements with the government, preventing them from acknowledging or denying aspects of the case reported in the press.

[54] Ynet also reported that the heads of the Israeli intelligence community met in private on 14 February to discuss strategies for minimising the affair's damage to active operations.