- Mordechai Vanunu, Israeli Nuclear Whstle Blower, Released
From Jail Early Sunday After Being Held 36 Hours In Isolation For Suspected
Parole Violations
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- Vanunu said authorities are looking for 'any little thing'
to put him back in jail after serving 18 years for blowing the whistle
on Israel's nuclear stockpile.
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- By Greg Szymanski
- 11-20-5
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- Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli nuclear whistle blower,
was released from jail early Sunday morning after being held in isolation
for 36 hours by Israeli authorities on suspicion of parole violations.
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- Vanunu, 51, a former nuclear technician, originally spent
18 years in an Israeli prison for telling the world in a London Sunday
Times article in 1986 about Israel's nuclear capability, including a stockpile
of more than 200 nuclear weapons.
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- Released in April 2004, he has been strictly prohibited
under the terms of his parole to leave Israel, including traveling to the
occupied territories. Early Friday afternoon he was detained by Israeli
police at the A-Ram border station as he was traveling on a bus near Jerusalem.
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- "It was the first time I sat alone in prison since
being released and it was very difficult as it brought back terrible memories,"
said Vanunu in a telephone conversation with the Arctic Beacon from his
home in Israel. "I think they are looking for any reason to put me
back in jail.
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- "After being held in isolation for 36 hours, when
I finally saw the judge, the prosecution wanted to detain me under house
arrest for two weeks and give me a stiff fine. But my lawyer successfully
argued that where I was detained was not in an unoccupied territory and
that the terms of my parole are vague.
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- "He also told the judge authorities needed to provide
me with a list of checkpoints that are off limits, which they haven't done.
I was just trying to travel to a small village and felt I shouldn't have
been detained."
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- After his lawyer successfully argued the legal points,
Vanunu was released without charges being filled or a fine being levied.
Authorities also did not give any specifics regarding his detention, merely
saying Vanunu was required to notify authorities anytime he planned on
leaving Jerusalem.
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- Under the terms of parole, he has also been prohibited
from talking to the press, something he has openly disregard, adding in
past public statements he was "not going to allow the Israeli authorities
to stop his freedom of speech."
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- "They never mentioned anything this time about talking
to the foreign press, but like I said I think they are looking for anything
little thing to put me back in jail," said Vanunu, who spent 11 of
his 18 year prison term in solitary confinement for going public about
Israel's nuclear program.
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- Vanunu was released from an Israeli prison near Tel Aviv
in 2004 for divulging what authorities claimed was classified information
regarding Israel's nuclear weapons program and its nuclear reactor in Dimona,
where he worked for nine years as a scientist.
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- The Sunday Times of London published a full account of
Vanunu's story, calling the attention to the world in 1986 that Israel
has already constructed 200 nuclear atomic bombs. He verified his claim
with photographs of the Dimona site, verified by experts who eventually
confirmed that Israel had nuclear weapons.
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- Vanunu was arrested in Rome at the time the article was
being published to Italy by a combination Mossad and CIA undercover kidnapping.
Once he returned, Vanunu claimed he was not given a fair trial and quickly
sentenced to a maximum term for treason as well as being termed a foreign
spy.
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- He also appeared last Monday, four days before his arrest
at the checkpoint, in his only U.S. radio interview on Greg Szymanski's
"Investigative Journal" on the Republic Broadcasting Network
where he said Israel's nuclear arsenal now had at least doubled to 400
nuclear weapons. His entire interview can be heard at <http://www.rbnlive.com/>www.rbnlive.com
in the archives section.
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- "If President Bush wants to find nuclear weapons
in the Middle East, all he has to do is come to Israel. I am not going
to let Israel keep me from exercising my freedom of speech," said
Vanunu during the radio interview. "I am waiting for my January hearing
where the Israeli judge will determine if I go back to jail for talking
to the foreign press.
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- "But I will not stop talking as what else can they
do to me after spending 18 years in jail, 11 years in solitary confinement,
for doing nothing wrong. All I ever wanted to do was alert the world to
the terrible nuclear threat Israel presented to the whole Middle East and
the world."
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- The Friday arrest hasn't been the first time Vanunu has
been detained by Israeli authorities since being released from prison.
Last November 11, Israeli police entered St. George's Cathedral, arresting
Vanunu. He was questioned about his interviews with foreign press,
which he conducted in open defiance of the restrictions, believing they
were in violation of his freedom of speech.
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- Vanunu was also detained last Christmas Eve, as he attempted
to enter the off-limits West Bank city of Bethlehem for worship at the
Church of the Nativity. He was released several hours later being given
five days of house arrest.
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- Vanunu's case was then reviewed by the Israeli court
last April where the charges were dropped but then immediately prosecutors
filed new charges under a different law prohibiting contact with the media
concerning matters of national security.
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- Prior to his Friday arrest, Vanunu was scheduled to appear
for a January hearing where he faces a possible six months in prison if
convicted on other alleged parole violations, charges specifically concerning
his alleged disregard for the Israeli order not to talk to the foreign
press.
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