Sources in the Israel Prisons Service have told Haaretz that the killer of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, Yigal Amir, has provided his wife with sperm samples for use in an artificial insemination procedure.

The samples were delivered a few months ago on several occasions, with the approval of the IPS.

Amir had been punished for attempting to smuggle semen samples outside prison, before he was allowed to do so. He secured himself the IPS approval after arguing for his and his wife's right to have access to artificial insemination.

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Recently, the Shin Bet security services have also removed their opposition to allow Amir conjugal visits.

Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin said Friday, in response to a petition Amir filed with the Tel Aviv District Court on Wednesday, that the conjugal visits do not pose a security risk.

Amir has been battling for his right to marry and have children for the last two years. He married Larisa Trimbobler by proxy after the Israel Prison Service, backed by the Attorney General, forbade holding the ceremony in prison.

The couple attempted to smuggle the sperm only a day after the IPS announced it would allow Amir to pass semen to conduct an artificial insemination procedure, while still denying from them conjugal visits for security reasons.

The prison service announced in March that Amir would be allowed to provide sperm samples for the artificial insemination of his wife, after rejecting the couple's demands to be allowed conjugal visits on the grounds that he could use them to pass political messages to his supporters.

In Amir's petition to the court last week, he said the fertility treatments that the Israel Prison Service approved for Trimbobler, an immigrant from the former Soviet Union and a divorced mother of four, could have negative long-term effects on her health.