Israel arrests nuke whistleblower Vanunu for 'leak'

8.45am

JERUSALEM - Israeli police arrested nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu on Thursday on suspicion of spilling more state secrets seven months after he completed an 18-year prison term for treason, a charge he denied.

Vanunu was bundled into an unmarked car at the Jerusalem church where he has lived since he left jail in April, witnesses said. Barred from going abroad or meeting foreign media for a probationary period, he had been under constant surveillance.

"He (Vanunu) is suspected of passing classified information to unauthorised parties," police spokesman Gil Kleiman said.

"He is also suspected of violating the terms of his release."

Vanunu denied the allegations when brought to court later on Thursday. Flashing the V for victory sign with both his hands, he said: "The atomic secrets (he's revealed) have already been told around the world."

The re-arrest of a man widely reviled in Israel, but admired by anti-nuclear activists worldwide, and repeatedly nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, was overshadowed by the death of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in Paris.

Vanunu, 50, was abducted in Rome by Mossad agents and jailed in 1986 for discussing his work at Israel's main atomic reactor in Dimona with a British newspaper. His revelations to the Sunday Times led experts to conclude that the Jewish state had amassed between 100 and 200 nuclear weapons, all but blowing away the country's policy of "strategic ambiguity" over its assumed non-conventional arsenal.

In July, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Vanunu to be allowed to leave Israel before the year-long ban expires, citing Defence Ministry charges that he intended to reveal more secrets.

Though he vowed to continue campaigning for nuclear disarmament, Vanunu denied having new information on Dimona.

He has since raised government hackles by criticising Israeli policies in interviews.

Vanunu said in court that speaking to reporters was the sole reason for his arrest and that despite his detention, he would not keep silent. "I cannot shut up, I have to have freedom of speech," he said.

Vanunu made a failed bid to win political asylum in Sweden last month, saying he felt his life was threatened. Supporters fear for Vanunu's safety in Israel, where most people despise him as a traitor and see the country's military might as an insurance policy against numerically superior Middle East foes.

In an interview conducted by an Israeli intermediary and broadcast by the BBC in early June, Vanunu said he exposed Dimona because he wanted to save Israel from a "new holocaust".

But he also questioned the Jewish state's right to exist.

- REUTERS