Israel holds nuclear whistleblower

Mordechai, centre, was jailed after giving details of operations at an Israel reactor to a newspaper [AFP] Mordechai Vanunu, who spent 18 years in jail for leaking details about Israeli nuclear programme, has been placed under house arrest. The former nuclear technician was confined to his house until Thursday as he waits for a formal indictment after being charged with violating a condition of his 2004 release from prison. Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman, said Vanunu met with "a number of foreigners", despite a ban put in place to prevent him from revealing further classified information. Avigdor Feldman, Vanunu's lawyer, said that police arrested Vanunu after it emerged that he had a Norwegian girlfriend. "Vanunu was arrested [for] a relationship between a man and a woman, with a Norwegian citizen," he said. "He is not being accused of giving any secrets. She is not interested in nuclear business - she's interested in Mordechai Vanunu [and he] is probably interested in her." Vanunu was sentenced to six months in jail in 2007 for violating the ban on contact with foreigners. Atomic weapons Vanunu was jailed as a traitor after he leaked details and pictures of activities at the Dimona reactor to the UK-based Sunday Times newspaper in 1986. The report led experts to conclude the facility had produced fissile material for as many as 200 atomic warheads, an amount that would make Israel the world's sixth largest nuclear power. In court on Tuesday, Vanunu, who refuses in protest against Israel to speak Hebrew publicly, addressed reporters in English. "This Jewish state has 200 atomic ... hydrogen bombs, atomic weapons, neutron bomb," he said. "They are not able to say they have the bomb, they are not able to destroy anyone ... instead they arrest Vanunu Mordechai." Israel refuses to confirm or deny whether it is the Middle East's only nuclear power under a policy of "strategic ambiguity", which it says wards off its enemies while preventing a regional arms race.