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Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu arrested... for having a Norwegian girlfriend

By MAIL FOREIGN SERVICE

Last updated at 3:07 AM on 30th December 2009

Nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu has been arrested for breaking a ban on contact with foreigners - one of the conditions of his 2004 release from jail.

Isreali police claimed Vanunu met with 'a number of foreigners,' something he was ordered not to do for fear he might divulge classified information.

However, his lawyer Avigdor Feldman said Vanunu was arrested because he has a Norwegian girlfriend whom police have already interrogated.

'Vanunu was arrested (for) a relationship between a man and a woman, with a Norwegian citizen,' Mr Feldman said. 

'He is not being accused of giving any secrets. She is not interested in nuclear business - she's interested in Mordechai Vanunu (and he) is probably interested in her.

Under arrest: Mordechai Vanunu arrives in court in Jerusalem after being charged with violating a condition of his release from prison

Vanunu was arrested at Jerusalem's Ambassador Hotel during a meeting with his girlfriend. 

The former nuclear technician, who has been charged with violating this order before, flashed a V sign and unleashed a rambling tirade against the 'impotent' Jewish state as he entered a Jerusalem court.

'This Jewish state has 200 atomic ... hydrogen bombs, atomic weapons, neutron bomb,' he said. 

'They are not able to say they have the bomb, they are not able to destroy anyone ... instead they arrest Vanunu Mordechai.'

Vanunu - who refuses in protest against Israel to speak Hebrew publicly - addressed reporters in English.

The judge ordered he should  be put under house arrest for three days pending an indictment, police said.

Vanunu was a former low-level technician at an Israeli nuclear plant who leaked details and pictures of the operation to the Sunday Times of London in 1986.

Israeli intelligence agents kidnapped him in Rome and brought him back to Israel to stand trial.

He served 18 years in prison before being freed, but he is not allowed to leave the country.

Whistleblower: Vanunu has already served an 18-year sentence for giving an interview to a British newspaper about the Israeli nuclear industry

Upon his release in 2004, Vanunu was banned from leaving the country and having unauthorised contact with foreigners.

The restrictions, upheld by Israel's Supreme Court, have been condemned by international human rights groups.

Vanunu denies he poses a security risk but says he will pursue anti-nuclear activities and wants to live abroad.

Israel neither confirms nor denies having the Middle East's only atomic weapons under a policy of 'strategic ambiguity' billed as warding off enemies while avoiding arms races.

Vanunu, a Jewish convert to Christianity, argues that by refusing international inspections at Dimona, Israel inflames regional tensions and risks a 'second Holocaust'.

He has also said the Jewish state has no right to exist, and there has been little public sympathy for him in Israel.

In 2007, Vanunu was sentenced to six months in jail for violating the ban on contact with foreigners.

Following a policy that it calls 'nuclear ambiguity,' Israel has never acknowledged or denied having a nuclear weapons program. 

But experts concluded from the material that Vanunu divulged that Israel had the world's sixth-largest nuclear arsenal with fissile material for asmany as 200 atomic warheads.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1239177/Israeli-nuclear-whistleblower-Mordechai-Vanunu-arrested--having-Norwegian-girlfriend.html#ixzz0bADVKUSK