Rudd and Bishop want more Zygier answers

7 Mar 2013, 5:16 pm   -   Source: AAP
The dual Australian-Israeli citizen was detained for alleged Israeli national security offences and died in a supposedly suicide-proof cell in December 2010. (AAP)

The dual Australian-Israeli citizen was detained for alleged Israeli national security offences and died in a supposedly suicide-proof cell in December 2010. (AAP)

Kevin Rudd, Julie Bishop and Christine Milne have all called for more answers on the shadowy Ben Zygier spy case.

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Kevin Rudd and the federal opposition are demanding more answers over the Ben Zygier spy scandal.

Mr Rudd was prime minister when the Melbourne man was arrested in Israel in January 2010 and foreign minister when he died 11 months later, but he says he doesn't remember ever being briefed about the case, despite evidence his office was told.

Mr Rudd has expressed concerns about how Australian officials handled the case, but on Thursday he made it clear he wanted more answers from Israel.

"Why was this individual incarcerated by the Israeli authorities? That is important, we still do not know," Mr Rudd said in Melbourne.

"Was there any connection between this case and that concerning the illegal use of Australian passports by Israeli intelligence services?

"I don't know the answer to either of those questions. I wait to find out."

Foreign Minister Bob Carr criticised the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's handling of the case after an internal report found it did not pass on news of Mr Zygier's arrest to the right people or proactively seek to offer him consular assistance.

Senator Carr ordered the internal investigation last month after Mr Zygier was outed as Israel's mysterious "Prisoner X".

The dual Australian-Israeli citizen was detained for alleged Israeli national security offences and died in a supposedly suicide-proof cell in December 2010.

It's believed he worked for Israeli spy agency Mossad.

Australia was originally told of Mr Zygier's detention around the same time it emerged Israeli spies had used forged Australian passports to assassinate a Hamas leader in Dubai.

Coalition foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop has taken aim at Defence Minister Stephen Smith over the affair.

Mr Smith was foreign affairs minister at the time and the DFAT report suggests his staff were informed about Zygier's arrest at least three times.

But he too says he has no recollection of ever being briefed.

"It beggars belief that Stephen Smith has no recollection of the matter or his office didn't tell him about it," Ms Bishop told the ABC.

"It defies belief, and Stephen Smith at the very least should provide an explanation to parliament about what really went wrong."

Mr Smith's office maintained on Thursday there was nothing to suggest the minister was ever personally briefed, or that he ever read two ministerial submissions from ASIO that referred to the case and were sent to his office on March 1 and May 13, 2010.

"We can find no evidence, nor can the other agency, that the submissions were drawn to his attention," it said.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard spoke about the DFAT report for the first time on Thursday.

"I think we've learned some lessons," she told reporters in Sydney.

Australian Greens Leader Christine Milne wants to know whether Senator Carr has sought from Israel a judge's report on the circumstances surrounding Mr Zygier's death.

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