  The lifetime of the Lambda-hyperon for the nonmesonic decay Lambda N ---> N N
has been determined by a measurement at COSY Juelich of the delayed fission of
heavy hypernuclei produced in proton - Au collisions at T_p=1.9 GeV. It is
found that heavy hypernuclei with mass numbers A= 180 +- 5 and atomic numbers
Z= 74 +-2 fission with a lifetime
  130ps +- 13ps (stat.) +- 15ps (syst.) . This value together with the results
obtained for other heavy hypernuclei in previous investigations indicates (on
the confidence level of 0.9) a violation of the phenomenological Delta I = 1/2
rule for Lambda N ---> NN transitions as known from the weak mesonic decays of
kaons and hyperons. PACS:
  {13.30.-a}{Decays of baryons}
  {13.75.Ev}{Hyperon-nucleon interaction}
  {21.80}{Hypernuclei}
  {25.80.Pw}{Hyperon-induced reactions}
