Vanunu in court, Times journalist arrested in Israel

international | crime and justice | news report Thursday May 27, 2004 20:12 by Eoin Dubsky

Peter Hounam, the Sunday Times journalist who broke the story
of Mordechai Vanunu's revelations about Israel's nuclear
weapons programme 18 years ago, was arrested by plain
clothes agents in Tel Aviv last night.

Mr Hounam, who has been in Israel since Mr Vanunu's release
last month after 18 years in prison for publishing state secrets,
was seized on his way to a dinner with a longstanding Israeli
supporter of the former nuclear technician.

Before being taken into custody, he was driven at high speed
back to his hotel in Jerusalem where he broke away from his
captors long enough to grab a fellow guest by the hair to attract
her attention and urge her to "tell people, tell The Sunday Times
that I am being arrested".

Mr Hounam's seizure came as he was traveling to meet Yael
Lotan, an Israeli journalist and Vanunu campaigner who last
Saturday conducted a two-hour interview with Mr Vanunu
scheduled for publication in this weekend's Sunday Times. Mr
Hounam was in detention last night, facing probable
interrogation by Shin Bet, Israel's domestic intelligence service.

Ms Lotan said that she had been telephoned by Mr Hounam at
about 8.10pm and that he appeared to be having trouble finding
her home to take her to a restaurant which he had booked. He
then failed to show up and calls to his mobile phone elicited no
response. The BBC, for whom Mr Hounam has been making a
documentary about Mr Vanunu, said it was "very concerned"
about his arrest.

Donatella Rovera, the Middle East specialist for Amnesty
International, who like Mr Hounam has been staying at the
Jerusalem Hotel in Nablus Road, was sitting at a table near the
door of the hotel's garden restaurant at around 9.30pm. "He
grabbed me and told me to tell people that he was being
arrested," she said. Ms Rovera said that he was with about five
men, wearing T-shirts and jeans who then ushered him upstairs
to his room.

When he came downstairs about 20 to 30 minutes later he
seemed less agitated and waved to Ms Rovera as he left the
hotel before being driven away in one of two unmarked cars
which had been waiting outside with a police jeep. He seemed
to have all his luggage with him and the agents were helping
him to carry it down and out to the car.

Ms Lotan said last night that she and not Mr Hounam had
conducted the interview for The Sunday Times. The conditions
attached to Mr Vanunu's release severely restrict his rights to
make contact with foreigners. Ms Lotan said that while the
interview included a personal narrative of his period in solitary
confinement, it did not contain new material threatening Israel's
security. "I don't think it endangers Israel at all," she added.

After Mr Vanunu was released from prison on 21 April he was
embraced by Mr Hounam in an emotional reunion as he arrived
to take communion at Jerusalem's Anglican cathedral.Mr
Vanunu converted to Anglicanism in the 1980s. He subsequently
moved into a hostel attached to the cathedral.

A government spokesman said last night that he was unable to
give details of Mr Hounam's arrest and detention because of a
gagging order.
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2. Vanunu in Court for Libel Suit Hearing
By Zvi Harel, Haaretz Correspondent and agencies
via Haaretz
May 24, 2004

Vanunu appears at court in case against Yedioth Aharonoth

Mordechai Vanunu attended a court hearing Monday at the Tel
Aviv Magistrate's court, his first public appearance since being
released last month from an 18 year prison sentence, in a libel
case against Yedioth Aharonoth newspaper and journalist Ron
Ben Yishai

The suit filed for the amount of NIS 368,000 was submitted in
September 2002 in the wake of an extensive article, which stated
that during Vanunu's prison sentence he passed on information
to the Hamas on how to manufacture explosive devices.

Vanunu's defense attorney, Avigdor Feldman, said the report
was fabricated. The article was never verified and Yedioth
Aharonoth did not even ask Vanunu for his response on the
matter.

Ben Yishai said on Monday, that that the preliminary information
he received on the case came from Ami Ayalon, former head of
the Shin Bet security services who discussed it in a meeting with
a group of some 10 journalists at the end of 1999. Ben Yishai
said, he had decided to publish the article five months later, only
after verifying the information with another source and because
there was public interest at the time since Vanunu had
submitted a request for his early release.

Ben Yishai stressed that he did not reveal Ayalon's name
(Haaretz revealed that Ayalon was the source of the information
[ZH]). Ben Yishai also said that he did not ask the other source to
testify in order not to divulge journalistic sources.

Ayalon is expected to testify at the next hearing.

Vanunu was released from an Israeli prison last month after
serving an 18-year prison sentence for providing The Sunday
Times of London with information and pictures of Israel's
nuclear reactor.

Based on the pictures and information provided by Vanunu - who
worked as a technician in the reactor - experts assessed at the
time that Israel has the sixth-largest stockpile of nuclear
weapons in the world. After his release from prison Vanunu - a
convert to Christianity- stayed St. George, an Anglican Church in
Jerusalem's Old City.


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3. Write to Mordechai Vanunu

Mordechai would love to hear from his friends and supporters.
You can write to him at:
Mordechai Vanunu
c/o Cathedral Church of St. George
20 Nablus Road
PO Box 19018
Jerusalem 91190
Israel