- JERUSALEM -- Peter Hounam,
the journalist who published Mordechai Vanunu's disclosures about Israel's
atomic weapons programme in 1986, has been barred from the country.
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- Meir Vanunu, the nuclear technician's brother, criticised
the ruling as an attempt to prevent Mr Hounam testifying when the Israeli
Supreme Court considers Mr Vanunu's appeal next week against a ban on leaving
the country, imposed when he was freed in April after serving 18 years
for espionage.
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- Mr Hounam, who worked for The Sunday Times, was deported
last month after he made a BBC documentary, which included a clandestine
interview with Mr Vanunu, who had been ordered not to speak to foreigners.
Yael Lotan, an Israeli writer and anti-nuclear campaigner, interviewed
Mr Vanunu but no new information was disclosed.
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- Since his release Mr Vanunu, who converted to Christianity
before his abduction by Mossad agents in Rome and forced return to Israel,
has been living in a hostel at St George's Anglican cathedral in Jerusalem.
Right-wing extremists have made death threats so he seldom ventures outside.
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- An interior ministry spokes-woman claimed Mr Hounam was
a danger to Israel's security and might prompt Mr Vanunu to reveal more
secrets. Meir Vanunu dismissed this as ridiculous. "Mordechai has
... spoken to many people. If he still poses a danger, why do they let
him meet them? Perhaps Peter Hounam would have helped expose how hollow
the argument is."
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- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=533916
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