[E-rundbrief] Info 1465 - AI: Israel: Vanunu under house arrest

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief - Info 1465 - Amnesty International, International 
Secretariat, East Mediterranean Team: Israel - ‘Vindictive’ ruling 
keeps whistle-blower Vanunu under house arrest.

Bad Ischl, 13.9.2015

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

www.begegnungszentrum.at

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Israel: ‘Vindictive’ ruling keeps whistle-blower Vanunu under house arrest

11 September 2015, 14:23 UTC

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/09/israel-vindictive-ruling-keeps-whistle-blower-vanunu-under-house-arrest/

Today’s court decision to keep Israeli nuclear whistle-blower 
Mordechai Vanunu under house arrest for giving a media interview is 
vindictive and heavy-handed, Amnesty International said.

The Jerusalem district court turned down his appeal against a week of 
house arrest imposed yesterday in connection with an interview he gave 
to Israeli broadcaster Channel 2 on 4 September. The sentence also 
prohibits him from using the internet or speaking to any journalists.

“The restrictions on Mordechai Vanunu are punitive and vindictive,” 
said Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Director at Amnesty 
International.

The restrictions on Mordechai Vanunu are punitive and vindictive.
Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Director at Amnesty 
International

“The latest attacks on Vanunu’s freedom are just one more example of 
the Israeli authorities’ determination to continue to exact 
retribution and make an example of him for what he did in 1986 and for 
which he paid the high price of 18 years in prison.

“Punishing him further now does nothing to protect Israel’s national 
security – any information he disclosed almost three decades ago is by 
now way past its sell-by date.”

Amnesty International considers Mordechai Vanunu to be a prisoner of 
conscience, deprived of his liberty solely for peacefully exercising 
his right to freedom of expression.

He previously spent 18 years in prison, including 11 years in solitary 
confinement, for revealing details of Israel’s nuclear arsenal to the 
British newspaper The Sunday Times in 1986. Following that disclosure, 
agents from Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad abducted him in Italy 
and held him in prolonged secret detention.

Though Mordechai Vanunu was released in 2004 after serving his 
sentence, his ordeal continues today. He remains subjected to military 
orders that impose punitive and unnecessary restrictions, including 
bans on foreign travel or going near foreign embassies, as well as 
restrictions on his internet use and communications with foreigners.

But, until his arrest this week, he had not been barred from speaking 
to Israeli journalists. Vanunu’s lawyers say that he did not breach 
his release conditions – the interview was given prior approval by an 
Israeli military censor.

Channel 2 is apparently standing fast to the principle of protecting 
their sources and has refused to give police the unedited footage of 
their recent interview with Mordechai Vanunu.

  “The latest restrictions on Vanunu’s freedom are just one more 
example of the Israeli authorities’ determination to punish and make 
an example of him,” said Philip Luther.

Background

Since Mordechai Vanunu’s release from prison in 2004, Israel’s Supreme 
Court has repeatedly quashed his attempts to be able to exercise his 
rights to freedom of expression, assembly, and association.

Last year, for example, the Supreme Court denied a petition from his 
lawyers to lift his travel ban so he could participate in an Amnesty 
International event on whistle-blowers in the UK and attend an event 
at the UK parliament to which he was invited by 54 members of parliament.

In 2010 he was imprisoned for three months after being convicted of 
breaching his restrictions by speaking to foreigners and attempting to 
attend Christmas Mass in Bethlehem.

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East Mediterranean Team
Amnesty International, International Secretariat
Peter Benenson House, 1 Easton Street
London WC1X 0DW
United Kingdom
E-mail: Eastmed at amnesty.org
Tel:       +44 (0)20 7413 5500
Fax:      +44 (0)20 7413 5719



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Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence
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fon: +43 6132 24590, Informationen/ informations,
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