Rabin's killer Yigal Amir to request retrial, wife says

Education Minister Bennett says assassin must spend the rest of his life in prison; no reason given for request for new trial

Yigal Amir, who is serving a life sentence for the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, is preparing to request a retrial, his wife said on Saturday.

Larissa Trimbobler announced in a Facebook post that a legal defense team was being set up in preparation for filing the request. She said the decision was taken in coordination with her husband.

Trimbobler did not give a reason for requesting the retrial, but a day earlier she posted images on Facebook purporting to show that one of Rabin’s bodyguards knew of the assassination plot.

Larissa Trimbobler, Yigal Amir’s wife(Courtesy)

Amir, now 47, is serving a life sentence for the November 4, 1995 murder of Rabin. He remains in solitary confinement.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett of the right-wing Jewish Home party reacted to the news, saying Amir belongs in jail for the rest of his life.

“The murderer of a prime minister needs to spend the rest of his days in prison,” Bennett said. “On this issue there is no right or left. Every murder is terrible, but the killing of a prime minister can destroy our state.”

Rabin served as Israel’s chief of staff during the Six Day War in 1967. He was later ambassador to the US, defense minister and twice prime minister.

In 1994, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with then-foreign minister Shimon Peres and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat for his part in signing the Oslo Peace accords a year earlier.

Earlier this month, over 85,000 people gathered in Tel Aviv for the main annual memorial event marking the assassination of Rabin.

The ceremony, titled “We are one people,” was held in the square where Rabin was shot. Originally called Malchei Yisrael Square, it was renamed Rabin Square following the assassination.