Court: Don't give Rabin's X-rays to Yigal Amir

Basing himself on freedom of information law, lawyer Shimon Halevy petitions court to overturn Health Ministry's decision to withhold Rabin's medical information, citing that it is 'information with high public importance whose public exposure is vital because details of Yitzhak Rabin's murder are different than those known to public.' Amir's wife Larissa Trimbobler: Neither he nor I signed petition

Miri Chason |Published: 10.03.06 , 13:22

Yigal Amir won't be allowed to see slain prime minister Yitzhak Rabin's X-rays, which were taken after his murder, as recently reported by Judge Mussia Arad, president of the Jerusalem District Court. The petitioners – Shimon Halevy and Yigal Amir – will cover the NIS 10,000 (USD 2,500) in court charges.

The court backed up the decision of the Health Ministry and Naomi Livni, responsible for freedom of information in the ministry, not to transfer the X-rays to the petitioners. The news was first published in the newspaper Makor Rishon (First Source).

Amir's wife Larissa Trimbobler said in response to Ynet: "This is not the petition submit by Amir. Neither he nor I signed. Halevy called me a number times and said that he wants to submit a petition on the issue, but I have no idea who he is. He presented himself as a lawyer who wants to deal with the issue."

Trimbobler referred to the NIS 10,000 court costs: "It is bizarre that the costs are so high, but we didn't sign anything and didn't grant power of attorney, and anyway Yigal Amir doesn't have any money."

On June 11, Shimon Halevy turned to the Health Ministry with a request to obtain copies of Yitzhak Rabin's X-rays that were taken days after his death. He based his claim on the freedom of information law.

On the same day, a response from the Health Ministry was sent to the petitioner declining his request based on the fact that it is not permissible to hand over the medical information of any deceased person, including Yitzhak Rabin, without a waiver of medical privacy signed by the deceased's heirs.

'Insignificant, bizarre, and baseless'

A few days later, Halevy petitioned the court in his name and in Yigal Amir's name. He asked to instruct the Health Ministry to hand over the requested information. According to the petitioners, "This is information with high public importance whose public exposure is vital to pursuing justice in Israel, and in particular that the petitioner received information that the details of Yitzhak Rabin's murder are different than those known to the public."

Judge Mussia Arad established, "The petition shows that the exposure of the information in the case at hand does not serve the purpose of the freedom of information law. The law states that the authority is not obligated to report information whose exposure will damage the privacy of the deceased individual. The petitioners did not indicate any kind of considerations in support of exposing the information. The petitioners claimed insufficiently that the information has high public value that is hidden from the public eye."

The judge established that the claims that the circumstances of Yitzhak Rabin's murder are different than those known to the public are based on "insignificant, bizarre, and baseless things."

She added: "The circumstances of Yitzhak Rabin's murder were investigated and resolved both in the framework of the court decision, which represents a conclusive verdict, and in the framework of the commission of inquiry established to investigate the issue." The judge concluded, therefore, that the Health Ministry's decision not to hand over the requested X-rays in the absence of any agreement from the deceased's relatives was in place.