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Vanunu case: Solitary confinement is cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment
AI news release
DATELINE: 25/6/10
Amnesty International has accused the Israeli authorities of subjecting jailed nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment by holding him in solitary confinement. The 56-year-old, who spent 18 years in prison for revealing details of the country's nuclear arsenal to The Sunday Times in 1986, was sent back to jail for three months on 23 May on charges of contact with a foreign national, and almost immediately placed in solitary confinement. Amnesty is calling for his immediate and unconditional release.
Amnesty International Middle East Programme Director Malcolm Smart said:
"Mordechai Vanunu should not be in prison at all, let alone be held in solitary confinement in a unit intended for violent criminals. "He suffered immensely when he was held in solitary confinement for 11 years after his imprisonment in 1986 and to return him to such conditions now is nothing less than cruel, inhuman or degrading."Vanunu is held in Ayalon Prison in central Israel. His lawyer revealed to Amnesty International that he has been placed in an isolated cell, ostensibly to protect him from other prisoners. For years, Vanunu has been portrayed by some Israeli media and politicians as a traitor and an enemy of the state for disclosing Israeli efforts to develop nuclear weapons, and he says he has received death threats.
Malcolm Smart said: "Mordechai Vanunu is a prisoner of conscience. The prison authorities might claim that he has been put in isolation to protect him from the risk of attack by other inmates, but if the Israeli government is really concerned for his safety it should release him without delay."
After Vanunu, a former technician at Israel's nuclear plant near the southern town of Dimona, revealed details of the country's nuclear arsenal to The Sunday Times in 1986, he was subsequently abducted by Mossad agents in Italy and secretly taken to Israel, where he was tried and sentenced to a prison term of 18 years, the first 11 years of which he spent in solitary confinement.
Since his release in 2004, the Israeli authorities have subjected Vanunu to police supervision under the terms of a draconian military order, which is renewed every six months. According to the order, he is banned from communicating with foreigners, including journalists. He cannot leave the country and is forbidden from approaching foreign embassies. He must also inform the authorities if he wishes to change his address.
Malcolm Smart added: "The restrictions on Mordechai Vanunu arbitrarily limit his rights to freedom of movement, expression and association and are therefore in breach of international law. They should be lifted and he should be allowed to start his life again as a free man."
Mordechai Vanunu's brother, Meir Vanunu, told Amnesty on 17 June: "It is very traumatic for Mordechai to be put again in solitary confinement and subjected to harassment. These are the same conditions he was kept under previously for 18 years and there is no justification for it after 24 years of suffering.
"We fear for the impact this will have on his health. Now is the time for Mordechai's true freedom - he should be allowed to travel and leave Israel. He should never have been put in this situation in the first place."
The harsh conditions of the dangerous criminals unit in Ayalon Prison mean Vanunu can only leave his cell for one hour every day to walk in the prison courtyard. He cannot currently make telephone calls from the prison unless he submits information about the person he wishes to call to the prison authorities - something he refuses to do on principle. As a result, he has had no contact with friends or family since the beginning of his current imprisonment.
His lawyer Michael Sfard was able to visit him and told Amnesty: "Mordechai Vanunu is suffering from isolation. He should not be made to pay a price because of the enmity of others towards him."
Last modified: Friday, June 25, 2010
Your comments:
I began a series of interviews with Vanunu in 2005 and met with him on all 7 of my trips to Jerusalem.
Please listen to Vanunu speak for himself in 2005, 2006 and 2008 video interviews and learn all about his FREEDOM of SPEECH Trial @ http://wearewideawake.org
THE VANUNU SAGA 2005-2010!
Eileen Fleming, Producer "30 Minutes with Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with Vanunu"
Founder of WeAreWideAwake.org
Staff Member of Salem-news.com
A Feature Correspondent for Arabisto.com and Dandelionsalad.wordpress.com
Author of "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory"
Posted by: eileen fleming: 26 Jun, 2010 14:27:13I began a series of interviews with Vanunu in 2005 and have met with him on all 7 of my trips to Jerusalem.
What follows is what I emailed to the following members of the Israeli Government, over 200 US mainstream media outlets and published as a PRESS RELEASE on PRWEB in 2006:
Dear Ambassador Daniel Ayalon, Ehud Olmert, Acting Prime Minister, Tzipi Livni, Minister of Justice, Gideon Ezra Minister of Internal Security, Menahem Mazuz, Attorney-General, Ministry of Justice, Brigadier General Avihai Mandelblit, Judge Advocate General,
Jerusalem, Israel (PRWEB) January 25, 2006 -- Today begins the trial of Mordechai Vanunu, a Christian in Jerusalem fighting for the inalienable right to free speech and movement.
Five months ago over a thousand journalists covered the drama in the Gaza. Not one explored the building of more illegal settlements, OR the continuing land and water grab of The Wall and its effects on the Palestinian economy OR interviewed Mordecahi Vanunu, a Christian held captive in Jerusalem.
After enduring 18 years in jail for blowing the whistle on Israel's underground WMD program in the Negev, Vanunu was released April 2004 under the draconian restrictions of the Emergency Defense Regulations, which were implemented first by Britain against Palestinians and Jews after World War II.
Vanunu, a Moroccan secular Jewish atheist, was baptized a Christian just days before being kidnapped, clubbed, drugged, bound and thrown onto an Israeli cargo ship leaving Rome for home by the Mossad.
After a closed-door trial and 18 years in jail he has lived in the guesthouse at St Georges Cathedral in Jerusalem forbidden to leave Israel.
Israel claims they cannot allow Vanunu to leave because he has a secret he has yet to tell. He has not set foot in the Dimona for twenty years nor have any International Inspectors.
"Israel is the only State that approved torture of detainees. I know there are dictators who use torture, but Israel is the only State that supported torture until 1999. That is when International, Israeli and Palestinian pressure groups forced the issue and Barack was confronted about it when he visited the United States…The methods and photos from Abu Grahib and Guantanamo were no shock to any Palestinian who had been in prison between 1967 and the '80's. All the methods used in Abu Grahib were normal procedures against Palestinians. In 1999 Internationals, Palestinians and Israelis for human rights threatened a boycott against Israel and that is what forced the Supreme Court to address the torture issue. They did not ban torture and the General Prosecutor can choose not to prosecute those who still use it." - Ala Jaradat at the Ramallah Headquarters of ADAMEER to me, January 5, 2006.
In Amy Goodman's 2004 interview with Vanunu he stated, “From the beginning they put me in total isolation for seven weeks after my kidnapping they even didn't admit I am in an Israeli prison. They put me in total isolation. The first two years, they keep me in a small room, filled with light 24 hours and camera inside. I couldn't sleep for two years; they tried to break my nerves. I demanded to meet a priest. They give me a priest, but without able to speak to him or him speak to me, only through notes. ShinBet men sitting near the priest, reading the notes. I'm sending him notes, they're reading them. We couldn't meet as a human being."Eleven and a half years I was in total isolation alone in a cell...I wasn't allowed to use the phone...So I use my simple brain, and my initiative. Like if they say I cannot speak to anyone, I decided I can speak, I spoke by reading in a loud voice from the New Testament in English.
"I want to leave Israel after suffering seventeen and a half years in total isolation and very cruel, barbaric treatment by the Mossad Shabac inside the prison. Also because Israeli media damaged my image in all of Israel amongst the Jewish people, and some of them hate me, some of them threatened my life when I was released. Some of them are anti-Vanunu because I became a Christian, so I am not free and I am not safe in Israel. And I am demanding to leave Israel to be free.
"It could only happen in a free state, the United States or Europe. I would like to move to the United States. I have adopted parents in Minnesota."
USA taxpayers provide three billion dollars a year to a democracy that ignores International Law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
All roads lead to Jerusalem and the war on terrorism will not be won until human beings do indeed have inalienable human rights and a democracy in name is also one in fact.
NOT one Mainstream Media outlet replied, and Vanunu told me why:
"Many journalists come here to the American Colony, from CNN and NY Times. They all want to cover my story, but their EDITORS say no...CNN wants to interview me; but they say they can't do it because they don't want problems with the Israeli censor. BBC is doing the same thing."Sixty Minutes from the United States from the beginning they wanted to do a program, but because of the censor situation they decide not to do it. Also big media from Germany, France, Italy, Japan. None of them wants problems with the Israelis."
The rest of "Mordechai Vanunu, Mainstream Media, Wikipedia and a PS: To the Book Publishing World" @
http://wearewideawake.org/ The VANUNU SAGA 2005-2010
eileen fleming, producer "30 Minutes with Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with Vanunu" freely streaming @ WeAreWideAwake
Posted by: eileen fleming: 26 Jun, 2010 14:11:48The Israeli Government do not recognise basic human rights and are practising apartheid. Mordechai should be released immediately and the israeli authorities should pay him compensation for the cruel and unjust way they have treated him.
Posted by: jani etherington: 26 Jun, 2010 00:05:16
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World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
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DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
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