Court dismisses sections of indictment against Vanunu

The Jerusalem Magistrate's Court yesterday threw out part of the indictment against Mordechai Vanunu and gave the state a month to submit an amended version.

Among other things, Judge Yoel Tsur ruled that an order preventing someone from leaving Israel does not preclude travel to the West Bank or Gaza, and the state therefore could not accuse Vanunu of having traveled to the territories in violation of this order. He thereby accepted the defense's argument that since no passport or visa is needed to enter the territories, they cannot be considered "outside Israel."

To the state's argument that Vanunu needed to be barred from the territories for security reasons, Tsur responded: "All restrictions on freedom of movement must be imposed in accordance with the law."

Tsur also demanded a number of corrections to the indictment. For instance, he noted, the state accused Vanunu of meeting with representatives of various foreign media outlets without naming the people whom he allegedly met. The indictment, the judge ruled, must name names, and the prosecution "will then have to prove that these are foreign citizens or residents."

Vanunu, who spent 18 years in jail for revealing information about Israel's nuclear project, was released last year, but was then subjected to various restrictions aimed at preventing him from revealing further secrets, such as the ban on going abroad or meeting foreign journalists. Two months ago, the state indicted him for having allegedly violated these restrictions 21 separate times.