Israeli TV star Dudu Topaz dies in prison

Dudu Topaz, one of Israeli television's best known faces, has committed suicide in jail. Topaz, who was awaiting trial for a campaign of physical intimidation against the TV executives who had spurned him, was found hanging with the flex from an electric kettle from the shower in his cell. He was facing charges of assault and battery, conspiracy to commit a crime, extortion and obstruction of justice, after allegedly ordering hired muscle to attack the female vice-President of an Israeli television network outside her Tel Aviv home, amongst other crimes. She ended up hospitalized with a broken nose.

This was a tragic end to an often curious, and once very successful, life. At his peak in the 1990s, Topaz was the country's top TV host, who managed to persuade half of Israel to tune in, and many of them to turn their lights off, after he promised that UFOs would land on his show. But throughout, Topaz was involved in strange displays of aggression: once publicly assaulting and smashing the glasses of a TV critic who gave him a negative review; once facing accusations of sexual harassment and indecency, and once, without any provocation, biting the arm of a Latin American soap star live on air.

With his show decreasing in popularity, as reality shows started to dominate the schedules, Topaz became desperate. He initially protested innocent to the charges he faced, but then confessed to a TV reporter, from a police car: "I don't know what got into me. I went crazy in the head." And even after he was sent to Nitzan prison in Ramle, the threats continued. Recently an envelope which was addressed to a rival entertainer was found at a post office. In it were some of Topaz's fingerprints, a bullet and a message which read: "This is the end and one day it will culminate with a bomb."

A diabetic, Topaz had previously attempted to kill himself by overdosing on insulin. His lawyer, Zion Amir, spoke on Israeli radio about how Topaz should have been sent to a psychiatric ward. "I told them his life was in danger. I begged the judges from day one. They thought he would flee the country, that he would hurt more people. I tried to fight and keep him alive." ·