Vanunu gets 6-month jail term for foreign contacts

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli court on Monday sentenced Mordechai Vanunu, who in 2004 completed an 18-year prison term for spilling nuclear secrets, to six more months behind bars after he violated a ban on speaking to foreigners.

Israel has barred Vanunu from traveling abroad and monitored his movements since he left jail, alleging that he has more details on the Dimona atomic reactor to divulge. Vanunu denies that but says he will pursue anti-nuclear activities.

"I don't want to live here. I have the right to be free," Vanunu, 52, said after the sentencing at Jerusalem Magistrate's Court. "I want to be free and I want to leave."

The court, which also handed Vanunu a six-month suspended sentence, held off on jailing him to allow for appeals. Vanunu's lawyer, Michael Sfard, said he had until September 9 to decide on a course of action but hinted he might not fight the prison time.

"This is a cruel sentence in a case that has nothing to do with national security or social values. It's a measure of the vindictiveness of the state of Israel," Sfard told Reuters.

"While Vanunu has perfect grounds for an appeal, we will have to give thought to whether that is what is wanted."

Vanunu was jailed on treason charges in 1986 after giving an unauthorized interview to a British newspaper about his work as a mid-level Dimona technician. The disclosures all but blew away the secrecy around an assumed Israeli atomic arsenal.

Since his release Vanunu has campaigned for the Jewish state to be disarmed. He openly defied an order, issued by Israel's military top brass and upheld by the Supreme Court, that sought to curb his contacts with foreigners and international media.

SECRETS, SECURITY

"While returning a man to prison after he served 18 years there does not bring joy to anyone, there was no other choice but to take this step to make clear that the nation will defend its secrets and protect its security," prosecutor Dan Eldad said in a statement issued by the Justice Ministry.

Israel neither confirms nor denies having the Middle East's only atomic weapons under a policy of "strategic ambiguity" billed as warding off enemies while avoiding arms races.

The apparent monopoly has long aggrieved Arabs and Iran, which is now developing its own nuclear program, which Tehran says is intended for energy production.

Vanunu's April conviction centered around comments to U.S., British, Australian and French media in which he said Israel assembled hydrogen and neutron bombs at the Dimona reactor and was annually producing 40 kilos (88 lb) of plutonium, enough to make 10 atom bombs.

Those statements appeared largely to be a retread of Vanunu's 1986 interview with Britain's Sunday Times.

Vanunu, a Jewish convert to Christianity, argues that by refusing international inspections Israel inflames regional tensions and risks a "second Holocaust". He has also said that the Jewish state has no right to exist.

(Additional reporting by Corinne Heller and Avida Landau)