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Israel arrests nuclear whistleblower Vanunu

Nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu has been arrested, Israeli police said.
Image: Israel's nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu
Israel's nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu is seen in this undated photo.Gali Tibbon / AFP - Getty Images
/ Source: The Associated Press

Nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu has been arrested, Israeli police said Tuesday.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said Vanunu was detained on suspicion he met with several foreigners, in violation of the conditions of his 2004 release from prison. He is to appear in a Jerusalem court later Tuesday.

Vanunu was a former low-level technician at an Israeli nuclear plant who leaked details and pictures of the operation to the Sunday Times of London in 1986.

From the material, experts concluded that Israel had the world's sixth-largest nuclear arsenal.

Vanunu was later kidnapped by Israeli intelligence agents in Rome and brought back to Israel to stand trial.

He served 18 years in prison before being freed.