Israeli prison chief vows to block marriage of Rabin's killer

JERUSALEM -- Israel's prison director said yesterday he would forbid the killer of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to marry in prison, after reports of his wedding plans stirred a national uproar.

Rabin's daughter, Dalia Rabin-Pelossof, was admitted to a hospital with an irregular heartbeat after hearing Israeli media reports that Yigal Amir was planning to marry an ultra-Orthodox divorcee, a family friend said.

Amir is serving a life sentence for assassinating Rabin as he left a peace rally in November 1995. Amir, an ultra-nationalist, believed Rabin, who led a center-left government, had betrayed Israel by concluding interim peace deals with the Palestinians.

His fiance, Larisa Trimbobler, was described in the Israeli media as an immigrant from the former Soviet Union and mother of four. The reports said she had exchanged letters with Amir and been granted rare rights to visit him in an isolation block.

"I am aware that [the marriage] will be difficult," Trimbobler told Israel's Channel 2 Television. "I really hope that with God's help I will have enough strength. It's obvious to everyone there will be difficult conditions."

Yaakov Ganot, head of Israel's Prison Authority, said Amir had not yet made a formal request to marry in jail, but added that he would reject it although he was aware of the prisoner's right to appeal through the courts.

Word of Amir's wedding plans provided a rare occasion for outraged agreement between the ruling right and opposition left.

Shimon Peres, head of center-left Labor and foreign minister under Rabin, said on Army Radio that parliament should pass a special law to prohibit the marriage.

"In other countries they execute people. We don't. But to allow him to enjoy a normal life, that is a bit too much," said Peres, adding he feared the wedding would be a first step toward Amir's eventual release.

Yuval Shteinitz, a senior lawmaker from the right-wing ruling Likud party, agreed that the law "enabling abominable murderers such as Yigal Amir to get married in jail should be changed."

Israeli law does not guarantee prison inmates the right to marry or have conjugal visits, but inmates can petition courts for improvements in their conditions, legal sources said.

Amir's mother, Geula, told the daily Maariv that she was delighted her son had decided to marry and hoped authorities would allow the wedding to take place.

Human rights lawyer Daniel Yakir said the prisons service would be making a mistake if it banned the wedding. "Human rights are granted to every human being however abominable. That is the real test," he said.

Tel Aviv's Tel Hashomer Hospital said Rabin-Pelossof was feeling better after being admitted overnight to its heart unit.