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Israeli Truth Teller Still Under Fire
Mordechai Vanunu Saga Continues in Court
By Greg Szymanski
Israeli authorities want Mordechai Vanunu back in jail for talking openly to the foreign press after the nuclear whistleblower already spent 18 years behind bars—11 of which was in solitary confinement—for crimes he says he never committed.
Vanunu, 51, was hauled before an Israeli court Jan. 25 on charges he violated his release agreement, including violations of speaking to the press and leaving Israel. Israeli prosecutors began introducing evidence of video recordings, printed articles and audio recordings claiming Vanunu granted interviews to the foreign press in what prosecutors are alleging is in a blatant violation of his release terms.
If found guilty, Vanunu could be sentenced to six months in jail and is facing fines. The trial was continued until Feb. 9. “I have done nothing wrong, and I will not let the Israeli government take away my God-given freedom of speech rights,” Vanunu told AFP.
Vanunu was speaking from Israel where he stays in a Christian halfway house.
He added that Israel’s nuclear stockpile has at least doubled in size, from 200 nuclear warheads in 1986 to more than 400 today.
“All I ever wanted to do was to stop nuclear proliferation, for the betterment of mankind,” he said. “Now they are trying to unjustly punish me again for things that were said more than 20 years ago and that are on the public record.”
Court watchers say Israel simply wants revenge against Vanunu for what authorities claim is another violation of divulging national security secrets regarding Israel’s nuclear weapons program.
Vanunu spoke of an impromptu meeting he had with former President Jimmy Carter.
“It was a good surprise to find myself in the American Colony Restaurant, eating dinner, while Jimmy Carter came to have dinner,” said Vanunu. “While Mr. Carter and his wife were leaving, his wife recognized me and said hello. She introduced me to Mr. Carter, and they said they would be very happy to see me in the United States.
“Mrs. Carter and the former president took me aside and privately told me they hope and pray for my freedom. [Carter] said when he returned to the states he would try and help me. I also ask that everyone in America try to lend assistance to my cause, as the American government and Israel are behind trying to keep me silenced.”
After serving 18 years for blowing the whistle on Israel’s nuclear capability in the mid-1980s, Vanunu was released from an Israeli prison near Tel Aviv in 2004.
He had been convicted of exposing Israel’s secret nuclear weapons program in Dimona, where he worked for nine years as a technician/scientist.
In 1986, The Times of London published the full account of Vanunu’s story, calling attention to the fact that Israel had already constructed 200 nuclear atomic bombs. Vanunu had photographs of the Dimona site, which had been verified by experts.
But before the article was published, Vanunu was kidnapped in Rome by what he called a combination Mossad and CIA undercover team and was spirited away to Israel, where he never received a fair trial and was sentenced to a maximum term for treason.
Since being “released,” Vanunu says, Israeli authorities have closely watched him. His activities have been illegally monitored and his movements traced by Mossad agents assigned to his case in order to make sure he keeps quiet and doesn’t leave Israel.
“I still feel like a prisoner, unable to freely move and speak,” said Vanunu.
In November 2005, Vanunu was held in an Israeli jail for 36 hours before being released after authorities held him on suspicion of breaking his parole agreement. Police at a border checkpoint had picked up Vanunu after he visited a Christian church in the small town of Aram, near Jerusalem.
He was later released after lawyers convinced an Israeli judge the arrest was contrived and Vanunu had no intention of leaving the country.
Vanunu said his return to jail brought back a terrible reminder of his long jail term and years in solitary confinement.
“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. “I think they are looking for any reason to put me back in jail.
“When I finally saw the judge, the prosecution wanted to detain me under house arrest for two weeks and give me a stiff fine,” he said. “But my lawyer successfully argued that, when I was detained, I was still on Israeli-occupied territory.”
Referring to his recent court case, Vanunu had harsh words for the authorities who he says are wrongfully trying to put him back in jail.
“The original trial date was for Jan. 15, but the Shabak [Israel’s general security service] moved it to Jan. 25, Palestinian Election Day, so no foreign media arrived and only three local journalists were in the court,” said Vanunu.
“The prosecution presented the court with copies of interviews with foreign media. Avigdor Feldman, my lawyer, argued that most of the evidence was not the original copies but downloads from the Internet.
Also, the state’s evidence was accompanied by testimony given by a police officer who interrogated me last year in a police station. This police interrogation was recorded by secret video camera without my knowledge,” he said.
“So this is the unfair trial that Israel wants,” he added. “They are hiding the fact that this is not about ‘state security’—as they have claimed for the past 20 years—but about me speaking to the press. No nuclear secrets are involved, and I have no more secrets now then I had in 1986.
“Never in all my court cases in the past have I found that the Israelis are looking for truth and justice, and I doubt they will now,” he said. “My lawyer said, no matter what I say, I will be found guilty.”
(Issue #7, February 23, 2006)
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