Ordinary Gweilo

I don’t normally comment on things happening overseas, but this seems ridiculous. I was reading about this today in The Sunday Times (subscription required) and now it has been confirmed by the BBC.

Mordechai Vanunu is released tomorrow after serving nearly 18 years in jail. His crime was to speak to The Sunday Times in London about Israel’s nuclear program, and as a result Mossad (the Israeli secret service) drugged him, chained him up and smuggled him back to Israel where he was put on trial.

Now he has served his sentence, but the authorities are trying to prevent him leaving Israel for at least a year, going anywhere near ports or even having any contact with foreigners. As The Sunday Times explains:

Bizarrely it has done so by dredging up an emergency military law, signed by King George VI in 1945 when Palestine was under the British mandate, to coerce Vanunu into remaining silent even when he is technically a free man.

Under an order — signed last week by a general but not yet published — a surveillance team from Shin Beth, the internal intelligence agency, will spy on Vanunu wherever he goes to make sure he obeys a series of restrictions that have surprised even the Israeli press with their severity.

He is banned from leaving the country or going near any port of entry in case he tries to flee. He must remain at least 100yd from any foreign embassy building in case he seeks asylum [this restriction has reportedly been lifted]. If he wants to leave the city where he is living, he must give the local police 24 hours’ notice.

It is hard to believe that Vanunu’s knowledge of Israel’s nuclear programme, which must be more than 18 years out of date, can really be a threat to national security. However, this will certainly make Israelis think very hard before revealing any state secrets.

To put this into perspective, in Britain the government has great difficulty securing convictions under the Official Secrets Act, as juries have a tendency to acquit defendants even when they are plainly guilty. Or at the opposite extreme we have China, where a brief trial will likely be followed by a long prison sentence or public execution. I make no further comment.