Never-ending persecution of Mordechai Vanunu

international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Monday November 27, 2006 19:06 by Justin Morahan - Peace People

Update on court cases, secret evidence, strange orders, sanctions on witnesses

The persecution of released whistle-blower, Mordechai Vanunu, continues in Israel with strange decisions, strange evidence, strange telephone calls and other strange happenings the order of the day

Two different threads run through the chequered court history of Mordechai Vanunu in recent months. On the one hand there is his own appeal against the sanctions imposed on his freedom of speech and movement since his release from an Israeli prison in April 2004. On the other hand there is the relentless pursuit of Vanunu by the Israeli authorities who have charged him with breaking those same sanctions.

Both cases have been strewn with a plethora of postponements, adjournments and reserved judgements so that he has been in and out of court (and police stations) much too often for a man who served his eighteen year sentence and should now be totally free.

Mordechai Vanunu blew the whistle on the fact that Israel was a nuclear state and had an arsenal of nuclear weapons, all of twenty years ago. Lured to Rome by a "honey trap", he was kidnapped there and shipped to Israel, gagged and shackled. Tried in secret, he was sentenced to eighteen years and spent the first twelve in solitary confinement. When released in 2004 in the glare of the world press, the Israeli authorities said he was still a security risk to Israel and immediately imposed sanctions, not allowing him to speak to foreigners, or leave Israel, or go within certain distances of embassies or the borders of Israel. They have renewed these sanctions annually on the pretext that Vanunu is still a danger to the security of Israel because of the secrets he knows from long ago.

Judge Dorit Beinisch, the newly appointed President of the Supreme Court of Israel, sitting in Jerusalem, rejected Mordechai's appeal against the sanctions imposed on him. The evidence had been heard in secret on 2 November 2006 and her verdict given on 21 November.

Meanwhile, on the existing charges against Mordechai of having broken the sanctions, a strange sequence of events recently unfurled. A police detective in Tel Aviv phoned Mordechai (who lives in Jerusalem) to tell him that new evidence had been obtained against him. This detective ordered him to go to Tel Aviv for questioning on "new charges". Refusing to go, Mordechai, on the advice of his lawyer, told the detective that he (the detective) could come to him in Jerusalem. On 22 November, the detective rang again to tell him that if he did not go to Tel Aviv, he (the detective) would have him arrested. Mordechai told him he could not go.

The dates of this interlude are significant as Mordechai was appearing in the Jerusalem Peace Court on last Friday, 24 November, 2006. There under interrogation from his lawyer (Mr Jerry Levin) IDF Central District Commander Major-General Yair Naveh, a State witness, was cross-examined on his evidence. The cross-examination revealed
1) that the General had not been allowed to see all the "secrets" which the Court claim Vanunu knows and which "secrets" the General is "required to protect". Apparently, The General had given orders for the sanctions to be placed on Mordechai to protect "secrets" that, according to his own testimony, he had not seen.

2) the General said that Mordechai was not forbidden to talk to foreigners anywhere!

3) The general testified that Mordechai could speak freely to any Israeli citizens about anything, that it was not his concern what Mordechai was saying to them. He conceded that these Israelis could give this information to any foreigners. It was difficult for the Judge to understand why this dichotomy existed between foreigners and Israelis.

Still in this court, the Defence gave notice that they wished to call journalist Peter Hounam (Sunday Times) as a defence witness but Government agents had decided that he (Peter Hounam) would not be allowed to travel freely while in Israel. The journalist had said he would not accept this order as he was coming to help in the defence of a man who was fighting against this very restriction and others. Lawyers got a week to search for a compromise.

Meanwhile, Mordechai has yet another appearance coming up in court, this time to appeal the decision of a different Israeli court. This time, Mordechai had taken a libel action against Israeli newspaper, Yediot Aharonot, for material published about him while he was in prison, but lost the action and costs ($10,0000) last November. His appeal against the decision comes up on 6 December next.

You can contact Mordechai at: P.O.Box 20102.
Herodian Post office.
East Jerusalem. 91384..