Yigal Amir requested leave to visit his sick father and was denied

 

Larissa Amir Trimbobler, the wife of Yigal Amir, who assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, has attacked National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir after her husband's request for a brief, special furlough due to his father's medical condition was denied.

According to Trimbobler, Amir submitted a request for a one-time furlough on September 9 following a deterioration in his father's condition. For three weeks, she said, he was asked to fill out forms, specify a requested date, and provide the names of guarantors for the furlough.

Larisa claimed that the process created hope that the request might be approved and wondered whether appeals made to Ben Gvir would influence the decision. From her perspective, she said, this was a humanitarian request, and she criticized the minister, "who has full authority to sign off on approval for such an exceptional furlough."

She wondered about Ben Gvir: "Perhaps he decided, after all, toward the end, to do a good deed? After all, even the hostile media would have had no reason to criticize him for agreeing to an unequivocally humanitarian request, and even if criticism had been voiced, it would only have benefited him electorally."

According to Larisa, Amir's attorney received the decision to reject the request yesterday.

The response sent to the attorney stated: "I hereby inform you that your client's request for a special furlough was not approved due to his dangerousness, as well as the position of intelligence and security officials, who oppose granting the prisoner the requested furlough. In addition, following an examination of the medical documentation concerning the prisoner's father, no justification was found to approve his request for a furlough on medical grounds, in light of the circumstances specified in the relevant directive."

She sharply criticized the reference to Amir's dangerousness. "The State of Israel will undoubtedly be placed in danger if a 56-year-old prisoner, who has already spent 31 years behind bars, spends a day or half a day with his seriously ill 85-year-old father," she wrote sarcastically.

She also criticized the determination that there was insufficient medical justification to approve the furlough. According to her, Amir's father is battling cancer that has metastasized to his spine and bones, has undergone several heart surgeries, and suffers from diabetes.

"As for the medical grounds, apparently they will only be considered sufficient when, God forbid, the patient is on his deathbed," she wrote, adding that, in her view, the father's medical condition should have justified approving the request.