The government acknowledged Sunday that Mordechai Vanunu, a former technician at the Dimona nuclear facility reported missing from London October 1, is being held “under lawful detention” in Israel.
The government emphatically denied that he was kidnapped by Israeli agents and brought to Israel against his will. It did not say, however, how he came to Israel or when. Vanunu disappeared shortly after he gave a story to a British newspaper that Israel has built up an arsenal of nuclear weapons over the last 20 years.
The government statement said Vanunu was ordered detained by a court following a hearing at which he was represented by counsel. It did not specify charges against him. Vanunu, 31, a recent convert to Christianity, is believed to have leftwing, pro-Arab sympathies.
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