by prison guards hanged in his cell on 15 December 2010 and buried at the Chevra Kadisha Jewish Cemetery, in Melbourne, Victoria. Zygier, who came from a prominent Jewish family in Melbourne, had made aliyah (emigrated to Israel) fourteen years before his suicide, taken the more Israeli name Ben Alon, and was married with two children. He reportedly also used the names Ben Allen and Benjamin Burrows in Australia. In a further report broadcast by the ABC on 7 May 2013, Bormann stated that Zygier was being punished for having "unwittingly sabotaged a top secret spy operation aimed at bringing home the bodies of Israeli soldiers missing in Lebanon" since the time of Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Biography Ben Zygier (9 December 1976 – 15 December 2010) was born in Melbourne to a prominent Jewish family. His father Geoffrey was head of the B'nai Brith Anti-Defamation Commission and was active in other Jewish organisations. His mother Louise worked at Monash University and raised funds for the local Jewish Community Center. Zygier participated in the Hashomer Hatzair, a Socialist–Zionist, secular Jewish youth movement. After completing his law studies, he made aliyah as part of Hashomer Hatzair in 1994 and volunteered at Kibbutz Gazit together with a group of other Australian Jews. After completing his military service in the Israel Defense Forces, he was recruited into the Mossad in the early 2000s, and from 2003 to 2004 worked at the prestigious Herzog, Fox & Neeman law firm. In 2006, he married an Israeli woman, and the couple had two daughters. In 2009, he briefly returned to Australia to obtain an MBA at Monash University. Alleged spy activities Zygier was recruited to the Mossad in the early 2000s. According to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald, Zygier was investigated by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) for allegedly using his Australian passport to spy for Israel. He was reportedly questioned by ASIO during a visit to Australia. He also reportedly visited Iran, Syria, and Lebanon with his Australian passport. According to a report by the German news magazine Der Spiegel, Zygier was originally enlisted into the service of the Mossad in 2003 and eventually served the organisation by entering the ranks of European companies doing business with Iran and Syria. However, Zygier proved to be a somewhat incompetent spy and in 2007 he was demoted and ordered to return to Israel,