WEST BANK: Israeli police detain nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu on a Palestinian bus

Record ID: 565377

  • Title: WEST BANK: Israeli police detain nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu on a Palestinian bus
  • Date: 19th November 2005
  • Summary: SIGN READING 'POLICE' EXTERIOR POLICE STATION
  • Embargoed: 4th December 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVAESCJCASREAJP8ITAEGMLZEMOB
  • Story Text: Israeli police detained nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu on Friday (November 18) as he tried to pass through a West Bank checkpoint into Jerusalem in an apparent violation of restrictions imposed after his release from prison in 2004.
    Border policemen carried out a spot check on a bus passing through al-Ram checkpoint toward Jerusalem, and noticed Vanunu among the passengers, police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said.
    Vanunu has been taken to the International Crimes Unit for questioning, Rosenfeld said.
    Vanunu, who all-but blew away Israel's nuclear secrecy by discussing his work at the Dimona reactor with a British newspaper in 1986, flashed a V-for-victory sign to reporters as police bundled him into a transport van.
    "The army they stopped me in a-Ram (checkpoint between Jerusalem and Ramallah), a-Ram, I come to the a-Ram checkpoint," he said.
    "Nothing, nothing, they just want to arrest me, they just want to arrest me again. They don't want to let me to enjoy freedom," he added when was asked what he was arrested for.
    Vanunu's disclosures to the Sunday Times led independent experts to conclude Israel has 100 to 200 nuclear bombs. Israel, which does not comment on its atomic capabilities, jailed him for 18 years.
    Vanunu went free last year but was barred indefinitely from leaving Israel, with officials citing fear he could spill more state secrets. The 51-year-old convert to Christianity denied the charge but has vowed to continue anti-nuclear campaigning.
    Rosenfeld said the bus Vanunu took originated in the Palestinian village of al-Ram, in the occupied West Bank, but declined to speculate on what he was doing there.
    Vanunu was briefly arrested last Christmas after trying to attend festivities in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.
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