Title: The Ongoing Trials of Mordechai Vanunu
Bridget - April 18, 2007 04:22 PM (GMT)
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| The Ongoing Trials of Mordechai Vanunu eileen fleming On Friday the 13th of April, 2007, Mordechai Vanunu was informed that the Israeli government has renewed all the restrictions against him, for the fourth time. Although 'freed' from 18 years in jail on April 21, 2004 for telling the world Israel had gone nuclear, Vanunu has been forbidden to leave Israel, forbidden to speak to media and to foreigners under the draconian restrictions of the Emergency Defense Regulations which were implemented first by Britain against Palestinians and Jews after World War II. After WWII, a leading Jewish attorney, Yaccov Shapiro, who became Israel's Minister of Justice described the EDR as "unparalleled in any civilized country: there were no such laws in Nazi Germany." [Ateek, Justice and only Justice, pg. 35] On January 25, 2006, Vanunu's freedom of speech trial began which brought charges against him for giving interviews to foreign journalists twenty one times, conducting chat room conversations with other foreigners, and attempting to travel to Bethlehem on Christmas Eve, 2004. On April 30, 2007 Vanunu will learn if he will return to jail for expressing his thoughts. Vanunu, a Moroccan secular Jew atheist existentialist, was baptized a Christian in 1986, just a few weeks before being kidnapped, clubbed, drugged, bound and thrown onto an Israeli cargo ship leaving Rome for home by the Mossad. After a closed door trial and 18 years in jail, most all of it in solitary confinement, Vanunu has lived in east Jerusalem, forbidden to leave Israel, forbidden to speak to foreigners, forbidden to approach any embassy, he has no passport and he is required to report to the police if he wishes to sleep in another home. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN in 1948 was ratified by Israel and was contingent upon their statehood. Article 13-2 affirms: "Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own." The Israeli government refuses to allow Vanunu to leave claiming he still has a secret he has yet to tell about the underground WMD program in the Negev. Vanunu has not set foot into the Dimona for 21 years and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Inspectors never have. In March 2006, Vanunu informed this reporter, "The Dimona is 46 years old; reactors last 25 to 30 years. The Dimona has never been inspected and Israel has never signed the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty but all the Arab states have...when I worked there they only produced when the air was blowing towards Jordan ten miles away. No one knows what is happening now." article continues |
cmain - April 30, 2007 11:54 PM (GMT)
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| Vanunu convicted for media links Many Israelis regard Mr Vanunu (left) as a traitor to their country A court in Israel has convicted former nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu of violating a military order banning him from speaking to foreign journalists. The verdict could mean a fresh jail term for Mr Vanunu, who served 18 years in prison for revealing details of Israel's clandestine nuclear programme. His lawyer called it intolerable to convict a person for the mere act of speaking, never mind whatever was said. A sentencing hearing is set for 18 May. Vanunu is banned from leaving Israel. "We should be clear here that Vanunu was convicted for the very act of speaking to non-Israelis, rather than the content of those conversations," lawyer Michel Sfard said. "We do not consider this appropriate for a democracy in the 21st Century." Mr Sfard said interior ministry officials had told him the travel ban on Mr Vanunu had been extended by another year to April 2008. 'Security threat' "All that I want is to be free, to leave the country," Mr Vanunu, 52, told reporters at the magistrate's court in Jerusalem. He was jailed in 1986 and released in April 2004 under strict conditions, including not talking to the foreign press. However, he has given a series of interviews to the international media in the last three years. Mr Vanunu's revelations belied Israel's policy of "strategic ambiguity" about its atomic weapons programme. It is believed to have at least 200 nuclear warheads. It is not subject to international monitoring because it is not a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Israel insists Mr Vanunu - who has converted to Christianity - still poses a security threat. Mr Vanunu says his action in revealing Israel's nuclear secrets aimed to avert a nuclear holocaust in the region. |
Bridget - July 3, 2007 02:34 PM (GMT)
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Israel's Vanunu sentenced to jail  Vanunu says he is only pursuing a legitimate anti-nuclear campaign An Israeli court has given a six-month jail term to a man who in 2004 completed an 18-year prison term for leaking nuclear secrets, this time for violating a ban on speaking to foreigners. Jerusalem magistrate's court sentenced Mordechai Vanunu on Monday, after he was convicted of 14 violations of the restrictions. "All I want to be is to be free, to leave the country," said Vanunu, who insists he only wants to pursue a peaceful anti-nuclear campaign. In 1986, Vanunu was sentenced to 18 years behind bars after telling Britain's Sunday Times newspaper about his work as a technician at the Dimona reactor. Unauthorised contact Israel has resticted Vanunu's movements and personal contacts since he finished his first jail term. Tel Aviv argues that Vanunu could leak new details on his past work at the Dimona nuclear reactor. Vanunu was convicted in April of maintaining unauthorised internet contact with foreigners, including foreign newspapers. He was also found guility of breaching prohibitions on entry to the occupied West Bank. In addition to the six month jail term, the court also passed a six month suspended sentence. The court said in its ruling that it would hold off on jailing Vanunu to allow him to appeal. "While returning a man to prison after he served 18 years there does not bring joy to anyone, there was no other choice but to take this step to make clear that the nation will defend its secrets and protect its security," Dan Eldad, a prosecutor, said in a statement. Since his release, Vanunu, a convert from Judaism to Christianity, has denied charges that he has more classified information that he could leak if he was allowed to emigrate. Aljazeera |
Bridget - October 4, 2008 10:36 AM (GMT)
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| Scottish gov`t backs calls to free Israeli nukes whistleblower Posted: 2008/10/03 From: MNN The Scottish gov`t is backing a British campaign for the release of Mordechai Vanunu, who alerted the world about the extent of Israel`s secret nuclear weapons programme over two decades ago. Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond revealed his government's support by sending a letter to the Scottish Parliament's Public Petitions Committee when signing a petition, organized by the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign. "The Scottish Government is well aware of the campaign by the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign and supports the lifting of all restrictions imposed on Mr Mordechai Vanunu," Salmond said. "We are sympathetic to Mr Vanunu's situation and we share his opposition to the proliferation of nuclear weapons," he told the committee. The petition "urges the Scottish Government to make representations to the UK Government to ask the Israeli Government to lift all restrictions on Mr Mordechai Vanunu and allow him freedom to travel." The whistleblower, who is a former nuclear technician, served 18 years in Israeli prisons after being kidnapped for revealing details about the Zionist regime's nuclear weapons program to the British press in 1986. He is still subjected to restrictions. In 1994, Vannanu was elected as Rector of Glasgow University, but he was prevented Israeli authorities from taking up the post, which ended in February this year. A joint statement from Scotland's other four university rectors, including Robin Harper MSP, also support the campaign, saying he had "in support of international law and in opposition to aggressive wars and weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East." Since his conviction, Amnesty International human rights group has described the whistleblower as a "prisoner of conscience" and called for his immediate and unconditional release. --IRNA |
Bridget - April 14, 2009 10:36 PM (GMT)
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| Last update - 23:39 05/03/2009 Vanunu: I don't want Nobel Prize after Peres got one By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent Israel's nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu requested on Thursday for his name to be removed from a shortlist of candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize because President Shimon Peres had received the award. Vanunu said in a letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee that he did not wish "to belong to a list of laureates that also includes [President] Shimon Peres, the man behind Israeli atomic policy." The nuclear whistleblower was convicted of treason and imprisoned for 18 years after telling a British newspaper in 1986 about his work as a technician at Israel's main atomic reactor, disclosures which cracked the secrecy around the assumed Israeli nuclear arsenal. Human rights organizations have put Vanunu's name forward for the prestigious prize every year since he was released from jail in 2004. Vanunu added: "Peres established the reactor in Dimona and developed Israel's nuclear weapons program... In the same way as Pakistan's [nuclear scientist] Dr. Khan, Peres was the man behind the proliferation of nuclear weapons in South Africa and other states. He was also behind the nuclear test in South Africa in 1978." Peres won the 1994 award together with then prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for the peace talks in which he participated as foreign minister that resulted in the Oslo Accords. Israel has never confirmed or denied having a nuclear weapons program. But outside experts have said it has the world's sixth-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, which Peres is believed to have been instrumental in developing. |