ISRAEL: Israel charged nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu yesterday with violating the terms of his release from prison by speaking to foreign reporters and trying to visit the West Bank.
Mr Vanunu, who was not taken into custody, could be jailed for up to two years if convicted, the Justice Ministry said.
"They can charge me 50 times if they want. I will continue speaking to the press," Mr Vanunu said by telephone.
Mr Vanunu (50) is reviled in Israel but admired by anti-nuclear activists worldwide.
A former technician at Israel's top-secret Dimona nuclear reactor, he served an 18-year prison term for revealing atomic secrets to the British Sunday Times in 1986.
He was released last April under orders not to speak to the foreign media and to remain inside Israel.
An indictment filed in a Jerusalem court charged him with 21 counts of violating the bans. Israel's Supreme Court turned down his appeal against the restrictions last July, accepting the government's argument that he remained a security risk.
"Since his release, Vanunu has systematically violated [ the orders]," the Justice Ministry said.Listing interviews in the US, British, Australian and French media, the indictment quoted Mr Vanunu as claiming Israel had assembled hydrogen and neutron bombs at Dimona and was annually producing 40 kilos (88lb) of plutonium, enough to make 10 atomic bombs, at the facility.
Last November police arrested Mr Vanunu, a convert to Christianity, at the Jerusalem church where he has lived since he left jail and brought him to court on suspicion of having divulged more state secrets to the foreign press.
Meanwhile Palestinian militants yesterday agreed to extend until the end of this year a halt to attacks on Israel, a move Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon described as positive but the United States said did not go far enough.
Palestinians linked what they called a period of calm to Israel freeing prisoners and withdrawing from West Bank towns.