Fourth quarter of 2002
Whistleblower Vanunu : the parole hearing is adjourned for the second time
WISE-Paris, 1 December 2002
[Posted 02/12/2002]
Israeli whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu sentenced to 18 years imprisonment in 1988, and who was due to be heard on 29 October 2002, had his parole hearing adjourned for a second time on 24 November 02. After 3 hours of argument, after the Israeli authorities produced a statement, on the morning of the hearing, to say that because Vanunu would still have information of such a sensitive nature, he could not be released on parole, the hearing was postponed to 31 December 2002. Representatives from the Campaign to Free Vanunu suggest that “Mordechai’s kidnapping may have been one of the secret sensitive issues“. (1)
Vanunu has spent 16 years in prison. He worked as a technician at the Dimona nuclear site in Israel from 1976 to 1985. In 1986, he decided to reveal information about the extent of Israel's nuclear weapons program to the world, through the London-based paper, Sunday Times. On 30 September 1986, a few days only before the Sunday Times published his revelations, Vanunu was kidnapped in Rome by Israeli agents and sent back to Israel to be condemned to 18 years imprisonment. His trial and the conditions of his imprisonment have been condemned by many political institutions and local and international NGOs. (2)
- Campaign to Free Vanunu and for a Nuclear Free Middle-East, http://www.vanunu.freeserve.co.uk
- See also: “Nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu awaiting parole hearing after 16 years of imprisonment”
http://www.wise-paris.org/english/ournews/year_2002/ournews021018.html
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