- A British journalist released from Israeli custody yesterday
said that he had been held in a dungeon with excrement on the walls following
his arrest on suspicion of espionage.
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- Peter Hounam was detained on Wednesday by the Israeli
security agency on suspicion that he had obtained classified information
from Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli technician who was jailed after revealing
Israel's nuclear capabilities to the world.
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- The journalist was released on condition that he leave
Israel within 24 hours, and will not be allowed to return .
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- Speaking outside the Jerusalem jail where he had been
held, Hounam said Israel should be ashamed of itself for arresting him.
He complained of being kept overnight in solitary confinement in a "dungeon
with excrement on the walls" and limited to two hours' sleep.
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- Hounam, 60, said he was questioned for more than four
hours by Israeli security. "They accused me of spying on nuclear secrets
and aggravated espionage. It is laughable," he said.
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- Senior sources at the security agency Shin Bet said that
Hounam had organised a covert operation to interview Mr Vanunu in breach
of his release regulations.
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- After 18 years in prison, Mr Vanunu was released last
month, but was forbidden from speaking about his work at Israel's nuclear
reactor and from contact with foreigners.
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- Hounam was the Sunday Times journalist who interviewed
Vanunu in 1986 and then published his revelations of Israel's nuclear programme.
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- According to Shin Bet, Hounam paid an Israeli woman,
Yael Lotan, £1,000 to interview Mr Vanunu on his behalf. Hounam,
with the help of BBC employees, edited and duplicated the tapes.
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- Shin Bet said they had retrieved five copies of the interview
but were not sure if other copies had been smuggled out of the country
or distributed via the internet.
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- Shin Bet's source said that the interview focused on
Mr Vanunu's history, from his childhood to his work at Israel's nuclear
facility in the Negev desert.
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- The tapes were still to be analysed to see if Mr Vanunu
revealed any secrets or broke Israeli law, the source said. Mr Vanunu could
be made to return to prison if he is deemed to have broken any of the conditions
for his release.
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- Hounam denied that Mr Vanunu had passed on any secrets.
"All the information that Mordechai Vanunu knew about in 1986 was
published at the time," Hounam said. "He has no more secrets,
and it's time the authorities here realised that."
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- He added: "The key fight is the fight to get Mordechai
Vanunu the right to leave this country, start a new life in America, if
that's where he wants to go, and stop these ridiculous restrictions."
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- Seeking to track to down all copies of the interview,
Shin Bet also detained Chris Mitchell, a BBC journalist, as he tried to
leave Israel with tapes of the interview.
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- Hiyari Sadi, a British free lance journalist, "consented"
to give Shin Bet his copies of the interview, the security sources said.
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- Hounam was arrested in Tel Aviv on Wednesday as he was
on his way to meet a peace activist. He has been in Israel since Mr Vanunu's
release, working with a television crew making a film for the BBC about
the case.
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- Mr Vanunu is barred from leaving Israel for at least
a year and is staying in St George's Anglican cathedral in Jerusalem. He
has received death threats and is anxious to settle in the US with his
adoptive parents.
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- Yesterday Hounam's wife, Hilarie, said from the couple's
home in Aberfeldy, Perthshire, that he was "overjoyed" to be
released. She said she believed the arrest sprang from the Israeli authorities'
continuing campaign against Mr Vanunu. "They know he has no more secrets,"
she said. "It's vengeance, isn't it?"
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- Hounam angered the Israeli authorities by publishing
the identity of the Mossad agent who lured Mr Vanunu to Italy where he
was kidnapped, drugged, bound and shipped back to Israel. In his book,
The Woman from Mossad, Hounam identified the woman as Cheryl Bentov and
tracked her down to Florida.
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- Donatella Rovera, an Amnesty International researcher,
witnessed Mr Hounam's arrest in the garden of the Jerusalem Hotel.
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- "Peter Hounam was brought into the garden by five
plain-clothes members of the security forces or police," she said.
"He broke away from them and ran over to my table. He looked very
concerned and just had the time to tell me: 'I am being arrested, please
tell the Sunday Times, please let people know'."
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- The Foreign Press Association, which represents international
news organisations in Israel, welcomed Hounam's release but said the arrest
of journalists was "a most dangerous threat to any democracy".
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- Hounam's lawyer, Avigdor Feldman, called the detention
a farce, and said he had not violated any of the restrictions on Mr Vanunu.
"He was arrested as part of the security establishment's never-ending
obsession with Vanunu," he said.
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- Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited
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