Police probe nuclear leaker Vanunu over interview

Police have launched an investigation of Mordechai Vanunu, who leaked classified details on Israel’s military nuclear program in a 1986 interview with a British newspaper, Channel 2 reports.

The probe is over a candid interview that Vanunu gave Channel 2 last week, the report says.

Vanunu was imprisoned over his 1986 interview, which revealed many details about Israel’s undeclared military nuclear program.

He was released in 2004, but the conditions of his parole included significant limitations on his freedom of movement and banned him from giving interviews on various topics.

In his interview with Channel 2, aired last Friday, Vanunu discussed the germination of his decision to leak details of Israel’s alleged nuclear arsenal.

He also described how, after he had leaked the information, he was lured from London to Rome and arrested, in a Mossad honeytrap operation by an agent (Cheryl Bentov) he knew as Cindy. “Any man would have fallen” for the ploy, he said.

Israel has repeatedly denied Vanunu permission to leave the country, in part because he allegedly still constitutes a security threat, and a further High Court hearing on the issue is expected soon. (In 2007, Vanunu was jailed for an additional six months for violating his release provisions when he was found traveling toward the West Bank city of Bethlehem, away from his home in Jerusalem.)

— Times of Israel staff contributed