http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters20040224_488.html
Israel Says Won't Arrest Vanunu After Jail Term Ends
Feb. 24 - By Jeffrey Heller
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided on Tuesday
that nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu will be placed under supervision
but not arrest after he completes an 18-year prison term in April, Sharon's
office said.
It gave no details about restrictions but Israeli security sources said
Israel would ban the former atomic reactor technician from traveling abroad,
monitor his movements in Israel and tap his telephone.
Vanunu, who worked at Israel's main reactor in the southern desert town of
Dimona, gave Britain's Sunday Times newspaper in 1986 details about the
facility, leading independent experts to conclude Israel had between 100 and
200 nuclear warheads.
Sharon convened a meeting of top security and legal advisers to discuss the
possibility of muzzling Vanunu, who was convicted of treason, to ensure he
does not spill any more secrets after he completes his full sentence on
April 21.
"A proposal to place Vanunu under administrative arrest on his release from
jail was rejected," Sharon's office said, referring to detention without
trial under long-standing emergency regulations that could be hard to defend
in court.
But it said in a statement that "proper supervisory measures will be applied
to Vanunu in accordance with the law to prevent him from committing
additional security crimes."
MORE SECRETS TO TELL?
During the meeting in the prime minister's office, speakers voiced concern
that even if Vanunu had no secrets left to tell, he could spread harmful
disinformation about Israel's nuclear program, the security sources said.
But, they added, experts said at the session there was no legal cause to put
Vanunu in "administrative detention" once he left jail, although such a move
could be defended in court if his future monitors discovered he had broken
secrecy laws.
Spirited home by Israel's Mossad spy agency, which used a female agent to
lure Vanunu into the hands of his kidnappers, the now gray-haired prisoner
is a hero to some anti-nuclear campaigners and has been nominated for the
Nobel Peace Prize.
He has won little public sympathy in Israel.
Israel maintains an official policy of ambiguity about its nuclear program,
saying only that it will not be the first to introduce atomic weapons to the
Middle East.
"All he wants to do is just be able to move about freely, to talk freely and
lead a life that every other human being enjoys," Nicholas Eoloff, an
American who with his wife Mary legally adopted Vanunu several years ago,
told Israel Television.
Asked whether Vanunu planned to reveal more secrets, Eoloff, speaking from
Arizona, said that under prison restrictions they had never discussed the
issue with him. The couple last visited Vanunu in jail in November.
Israeli media reports said agents from the Shin Bet internal security
service went to Vanunu's prison earlier on Tuesday and questioned him for
three hours about his plans. The reports said Vanunu did not shed any light
on his intentions.
Vanunu, who converted to Christianity, was recently reported to have told
his brothers that he wants to leave the Jewish state permanently.
Copyright 2004 Reuters News Service.
All rights reserved.
.
|
