Israeli Nuclear Whistleblower Indicted Over TV Interview
Free for Now: Israeli journalists, showed her interviewing nuclear scientist Mordechai Vanunu, have long boasted of the only truly free press in the Middle East. They worry that could be changing. Image by getty images
JERUSALEM — Mordechai Vanunu, who served 18 years in prison for disclosing Israeli nuclear secrets, was indicted for violating the terms of his parole over an interview he gave to an Israeli television station.
The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court handed down the indictment on Sunday for the September interview on Channel 2, the station [reported](http://www.mako.co.il/news-law/legal-q2_2016/Article-a6efbdaf9319451004.htm?sCh=31750a2610f26110&pId=2100566639%20 “”).
All the material broadcast in the interview had been approved by Israel’s military censor, Channel 2 said, but in the unedited tapes Vanunu reportedly discussed topics prohibited by his parole.
The indictment also stated that Vanunu violated his parole by moving to a different apartment in the same building without notifying police and by meeting with two visiting American citizens at a hotel in eastern Jerusalem.
Vanunu, 60, who was released from prison in 2004, was jailed in Israel for discussing details of his work as a technician at the Dimona nuclear facility with the Sunday Times of London. He reportedly revealed Israeli nuclear secrets and gave the newspaper photographs of the plant’s operations.
Under the terms of his parole, Vanunu is prohibited from leaving Israel, visiting the West Bank or approaching foreign embassies and speaking with foreign nationals.
Israel’s Supreme Court has denied several appeals from Vanunu to leave the country.
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