Israeli whistleblower will be under supervision after release...

Israeli whistleblower will be under supervision after release

25.02.2004

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided on Tuesday that 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.

The decision was announced after Sharon discussed with security and legal advisers whether to try to muzzle the former nuclear technician to ensure he does not spill more secrets about Israel's nuclear programme.

Vanunu, who worked at Israel's main atomic reactor in the 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.

Convicted of treason after Israel's Mossad spy agency spirited him home, Vanunu gets out of jail on April 21 after serving his full term. He is a hero to some anti-nuclear campaigners and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, though he has won little public sympathy in Israel.

"A proposal to place Vanunu under administrative arrest on his release from jail was rejected," the statement said, referring to detention without trial under long-standing emergency security regulations.

But it said "proper supervisory measures will be applied to Vanunu in accordance with the law to prevent him from committing additional security crimes".

It gave no details. Israeli media reports have speculated authorities might clamp a foreign travel ban on Vanunu, monitor his telephone calls or even place security guards in his home.

The imposition of government restrictions after Vanunu, 49, has served his time would be open to legal challenges in Israeli courts.

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.

Earlier this month, Shabtai Shavit, the Mossad chief who masterminded Vanunu's "honey trap" ensnarement by a female agent who delivered him into the intelligence service's hands, told Reuters that Israel had considered killing him instead in 1986.

"But Jews do not do that to other Jews. He was a traitor, so in accordance with Jewish morality and Jewish law, he paid for it with imprisonment," Shavit said.

Israel maintains an official policy of ambiguity about its nuclear programme, saying only that it will not be the first to introduce atomic weapons to the Middle East.

- REUTERS