Christian activist defiant after fresh charges from Israeli authorities
-21/03/05
The nuclear whistleblower and well known Christian Mordechai Vanunu has reacted defiantly to criminal charges levelled by the Israeli authorities that could put him back in prison.
He has vowed to continue flouting orders that prohibit him from speaking to the foreign press because he believes that he has the right to freedom of speech.
Speaking through an intermediary from the cathedral in Jerusalem where he has sought sanctuary, Vanunu said he had always believed that the orders were unconstitutional and had therefore decided to ignore them. ìThis is a human rights issue,î Vanunu said.
ìI want to work for world peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons. I want the human race to survive.î
Vanunu worked as a technician at Israelís nuclear weapons plant near the town of Dimona, but in 1986 he decided to expose its inner secrets to The Sunday Times. He was kidnapped by Israeli agents in Rome and smuggled home, where he stood trial for treason and espionage.
His gruelling 18-year sentence ended last April but restrictions were immediately imposed on him, including bans on leaving the country and speaking to foreigners. He soon began to infuriate the authorities by openly meeting visitors from abroad, including the foreign media.
The Bishop of Jerusalem described how heavily armed police commandos stormed his Jerusalem church compound and arrested Vanunu for allegedly revealing classified information, seven months after he completed an 18-year prison sentence for treason.
Among 22 indictments filed last Thursday in the Jerusalem district court, Vanunu is accused of violating the restrictions by giving a joint interview to The Sunday Times and the BBC last May, although the interviewer was an Israeli.
Another charge says that last July he told a British journalist that he had ìphotographed a model of a neutron bomb and said he believed Israel had developed a hydrogen bombî. This is presented in the charge as a revelation, but the Sunday Times articles in 1986 included Vanunuís photographs of models of these types of weapon with explanatory details.
Another indictment said Vanunu had told the Sky television journalist Adam Boulton last December that he was ìdeliberately violating the restrictions imposed on him in order to make his caseî.
In another charge Vanunu has been accused of attempting to leave Israel. The incident dates from Christmas Eve when he took a taxi to the West Bank town of Bethlehem with the aim of attending a carol service at the Church of the Nativity.
Michael Sfard, one of Vanunuís lawyers, said: ìVanunu has fully served his sentence for what he did. Now the authorities seem to be trying to punish him all over again.î