Vanunu 'proud of spilling secrets'

Mordechai Vanunu was released from prison today after serving 18 years for spilling Israel’s nuclear secrets, saying he was proud of his actions and complaining he was treated cruelly by his jailers.

Vanunu, dressed in a check shirt and black tie, flashed victory signs and waved to cheering supporters as he walked into the courtyard of Shikma Prison in the coastal town of Ashkelon. Counter-demonstrators booed.

In the courtyard, Vanunu held an impromptu news conference, flanked by two of his brothers.

Vanunu said he was given “very cruel and barbaric treatment” by Israel’s security services.

“I am proud and happy to do what I did,” Vanunu said in accented English.

He refused to answer questions in Hebrew because of the suffering he said he sustained at the hands of the state of Israel.

Vanunu, who converted to Christianity in the 1980s, said he was mistreated because of his religion.

He also said there was no need for a Jewish state.

He said he had no more secrets to reveal. “I am now ready to start my life,” he said.

Vanunu said Israel’s Mossad spy agency and the Shin Bet security services tried to rob him of his sanity by keeping him in solitary confinement for nearly 12 years.

“I said to the Shabak (Shin Bet), the Mossad, you didn’t succeed to break me, you didn’t succeed to make me crazy.”

Asked if he was a hero, he said “all those who are standing behind me, supporting me … all are heroes”.

“I am a symbol of the will of freedom,” he said. “You cannot break the human spirit.”

Vanunu was driven away from the prison and his immediate destination was not known.

Actress Susannah York and anti-nuclear activists from around the world had gathered outside the prison to welcome Vanunu.

Other British anti-nuclear activists, including playwright Harold Pinter and actress Julie Christie, sent messages to coincide with his release.

Vanunu was convicted of treason and espionage and jailed for 18 years after giving information and pictures to the Sunday Times in 1986, describing Israel’s top secret nuclear reactor, where he worked.

The material Vanunu handed over led experts to conclude that Israel had the world’s sixth largest nuclear weapons arsenal. Vanunu was a reactor technician at the nuclear plant in the desert town of Dimona.

Israel has never admitted possessing nuclear weapons, but does not issue denials either – following instead a policy of “ambiguity”, stating only that Israel would not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East.

Vanunu is considered a traitor by many Israelis, and his attorney expressed concern for his safety after his release.

He will not be completely free as he will have to comply with draconian travel restrictions and other constraints, or risk being arrested again.

He has said he has nothing more to reveal, but Shai Nitzan of the state attorney’s office, who headed the legal team that decided on the restrictions, said experts concluded that “Vanunu was exposed to additional state secrets that he has not yet made public, and that poses a security threat”.

Vanunu, who had hoped to leave the country, will not be allowed to travel abroad for at least a year, speak to foreigners or approach Israeli ports or borders.

He is also barred from discussing his work at Israel’s nuclear reactor. Vanunu was given a map of Israel marking the areas off-limits to him, the defence ministry said.

Defending the restrictions imposed on Vanunu, Israeli opposition leader Shimon Peres, who spearheaded Israel’s nuclear programme in the 1950s and 60s, said “Vanunu violated norms and betrayed his country”.

“This is justice,” Peres, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, told Israeli army radio.

Vanunu will live in a luxury apartment complex in Jaffa, an old seaport and today part of Tel Aviv.

Jaffa has both Arab and Jewish residents, and Vanunu’s apartment will be near several churches.

Vanunu, who was raised as an Orthodox Jew, converted to Christianity in the mid-1980s.

The Andromeda Hill complex has 170 apartments, and tenants include both wealthy foreigners and local residents. It was unclear who is paying for Vanunu’s apartment.