The New York Times · New York, New York · 5 November 1995

CP-1995-011

Suspect Says He Tried to Kill Rabin Before

Arrested Law Student Often Joined Protests Against Government

By JOEL GREENBERG

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Transcribed from the clipping

JERUSALEM, Nov. 4 — Yigal Amir, the 27-year-old law student who was arrested for the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin tonight, was described by acquaintances as a militant critic of the Government who regularly joined protests against Mr. Rabin’s policies. He told interrogators that he had carried out the killing on his own. Under questioning by the police, Mr.

Amir said he had been planning the assassination for a long time and had intended to kill Mr. Rabin on two previous occasions but was thwarted by tight security measures. After his self-appointed mission tonight, Mr. Amir, a short, dark-haired man dressed in a blue shirt and light-colored pants, was pinned to a wall by police officers and rushed to a waiting police car.

“I have no regrets,” he was quoted as telling investigators. “I acted alone and on orders from God.” According to some accounts, Mr. Amir had links to a small militant anti-Arab group known as Eyal that is virulently opposed to the Government’s accords with the Palestine Liberation Organization. A leader of the group, Avishai Raviv, acknowledged tonight that he knew Mr. Amir.

But he denied that the assassin belonged to Eyal or that the group had anything to do with the shooting. After the shooting, Israeli reporters received beeper messages signed Ain, a Hebrew acronym for the Israeli Avenging Organization, a previously unknown group.

The group claimed responsibility for the killing, though it was not immediately known if it had any connection with Mr. Amir. The assassination was the second incident of extreme violence by right-wing Jewish militants since the 1993 signing of the Israeli-Palestinian accord.

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