JERUSALEM — Even though he’s been in jail for almost 12 years, and he was just released from a long stay in solitary confinement, nuclear spy Mordechai Vanunu has provoked an explosion of activity with his recent actions.
Prison officials are investigating how Vanunu succeeded in relaying answers to questions posed by London’s Sunday Times, which published an interview with him late last week.
Vanunu was jailed after he sold Israeli nuclear secrets to that paper in 1986. He had been held in solitary confinement since 1987 and only recently received permission to mix with other inmates.
Vanunu could face punishment following the most recent interview with the Sunday Times, which did not receive official sanction. A Prisons Service spokeswoman said Sunday night that “if our investigation finds him guilty, he will face disciplinary steps, including stripping him of some of his privileges.”
Prison officials speculated Sunday that Vanunu may have answered questions posed by his brother Asher, who met him recently in Shikma Prison near Ashkelon.
Two British politicians who went to the prison Sunday in the hope of meeting Vanunu were not granted entry, despite an hour-long wait outside the prison gates. However, they later were able to leave a petition asking for a presidential pardon at Beit Hanassi for President Ezer Weizman. They gave the petition, signed by 700 international figures, to Weizman’s director-general, Aryeh Shumer, during a meeting with him.
The joint vice-chairs of the Human Rights Groups of the British Parliament and House of Lords, Labor MP Jeremy Corbyn and Lord Avebury, made a special whirlwind trip here in the hope of securing Vanunu’s release. They were accompanied by actress Susannah York, who has been in the vanguard of the fight for the spy’s release.
“It would be an extraordinary gesture on the part of Israel to release Vanunu now,” said Corbyn to reporters outside Beit Hanassi.
He said the request was tied to Israel’s 50th anniversary and to the visit of British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Vanunu’s case was due to come up before the prison parole board on Wednesday, as he has served two-thirds of his 18-year sentence. The British activists have written to the board as well.
In the Sunday Times interview, Vanunu said he wants to leave Israel as soon as he is released. He said he decided to betray Israel’s nuclear secrets from “deep internal conviction, and I would do it all again.”
“I think I was brave,” he said. “I was the only individual who ever stood up to the entire Israeli establishment to say what I believed. I acted out of concern for this society, even though Israel likes to portray me as public enemy No. 1.”
Vanunu portrayed himself as a dedicated, but deeply misunderstood and abused patriot.
“I wanted to save the population of Israel from the disaster of a nuclear war, and they turned me into a traitor and a spy. There was no proportion between my act and my punishment.”
Vanunu said Shin Bet officials had offered to end his isolation in jail five years ago if he agreed not to discuss nuclear weapons or the circumstances of his capture.
“Get out of this cell,” Vanunu said he told them. “I am not interested. Do what you want, because I shall have no dealings with you. You have put me in here and you can take me out. But I will not forgo my right to say that I was kidnapped and that you broke the law.”