Zygier's father: It's still just too painful for us to speak about

Australian media are busy hunting down details of the life of the man known as Prisoner X. From his childhood in the Melbourne Jewish community, his immigration to Israel to his army service, everyone is asking the same question: Who was Ben Zygier?

According to reports, Zygier was the son of Geoffrey and Louise Zygier. His father is a well-known leader in the Melbourne Jewish community who is currently executive director for B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission and formerly director of the Victoria Jewish Community Council. In the past, his mother worked as a fundraiser for the law school at Monash University.

On Wednesday, the Australian newspaper The Age published a quote from Geoffrey Zygier.

"It's still just too painful for us to speak about at the moment," he said. "We understand the interest, but we've decided not to talk to anyone, not at the moment. I'm sorry."

Zygier studied law at the University of Melbourne and even worked as a lawyer. In 2000, he immigrated to Israel and was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces. While living in Israel, he changed his name to Ben Alon, married, and had two children. Zygier was well known in the Jewish community of Melbourne, where he lived most of his life and where he studied in a private Jewish day school.

"I remember drinking with Ben one night in 2001 when he recounted his famous story of taking a bullet in the posterior," former colleague Patrick Durkin wrote in the Australian Financial Review newspaper, where he is a correspondent.

"He described in vivid detail patrolling the front line and backtracking across war-torn countryside while gunfire peppered the ground."

"He was extremely proud of his time in the military," Durkin recounts.

In 2002, Zygier worked as an insurance lawyer at the Australian firm Deacons.

Ben's uncle, Willy Zygier, told ABC radio on Wednesday that he had "no idea what is true, what isn't true."

"All I know is there's a family tragedy. Every suicide is a tragedy. That's all I've got to say," he said.

"Ben's parents are in mourning. I don't know if they'll talk. And I'm a humble musician. I don't know anything."

The Australian newspaper reported that a source hinted that Zygier may have had psychological problems. The newspaper said that the Jewish community was aware that Zygier had killed himself but not that he had been arrested in Israel.

How it all began

The exposure of Ben Zygier apparently began with an investigation by Australian journalist Jason Katsoukis. According to a report in Britain's Guardian newspaper, Katsoukis, who was living in Jerusalem in 2009, received a tip from "an anonymous source with connections to the intelligence world."

"The source named three Australians with joint Israeli citizenship who, he said, were working for a front company set up by Mossad in Europe selling electronic equipment to Iran and elsewhere."

"I was tipped off in October 2009," Katsoukis told the Guardian. "The story was that Mossad was recruiting Australians to spy for them using a front company in Europe. It all seemed too good to be true.

"But what I was told seemed to check out. The company did exist. I also managed to establish that Zygier and another of the individuals had worked for it. I wasn't able to confirm the third name."

Israel Prison Service: A prisoner who wants to commit suicide will ultimately succeed

The Israel Prison Service has made a concerted effort in recent years to prevent prisoner suicides. The Prison Service said there were 12 prisoner suicides in each of 2009 and 2010. In 2011, there were four and in 2012 there were three.

Nevertheless, the Israel Prison Service concedes that "prisoners with suicidal intentions who seek to end their lives usually succeed."

The dramatic change began in 2009 following the suicides of television personality Dudu Topaz and murderer Assaf Goldring. Following a wave of suicides during that period, the Prison Service declared a massive effort to combat the phenomenon, using sophisticated technology and training wardens to identify prisoners in distress.

Some prisoners identified as having suicidal tendencies even occupy special cells known as "spaceships," whose walls are padded to prevent prisoners from banging their heads into the wall. The cells are monitored by video and lack objects that could be used for committing suicide, such as sheets, belts and electric wires. Special sensors, similar to baby monitors, send out an alarm when no motion has been detected for 60 seconds.

The Prison Service said that most suicides took place among detainees who had not yet received their sentence. The initial days of loss of freedom are considered the most difficult, and suicide prevention begins when prisoners are first processed, with each prisoner or detainee is assessed for suicidal intentions.

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