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THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE November 28, 1986 Page 3
The cutting edge
Vanunu puts Israel’s sedition law to test
by Edwin Black
—JERUSALEM
By now, it has been confirmed
that Israel’s news-leaking nuclear
technician, Mordechai Vanunu,
was enticed out of Great Britain
to the south of France by a
chubby but attractive blond
named Cindy who was employed
by the Mossad. From there,
Vanunu was lured onto a yacht
which was intercepted in interna
tional waters by a Mossad vessel.
He was then brought back to
Israel to stand trial. But Israel’s
destructive silence about its legit
imate law enforcement activities
has done more than create con
fusion and embarrassment. It has
now become clear that in Israel,
it is legally possible to disappear
without a trace.
Start with Israeli criminal laws
relating to state secrets. Prior to
beginning work at the Dimona
reactor in early 1977 as a low-
level technician, Vanunu signed
special security agreements pur
suant to the Official Secrets Act.
Akin to the security agreements
signed by employees of Ameri
ca’s Central Intelligence Agency
and Britain’s MI5, the employee
effectively waives many of his
civil and legal rights as a condi
tion of employment.
Once Vanunu gathered pho
tographs of the nuclear facility
and agreed to peddle them to the
Sunday Times of London, he
committed a variety of high
security crimes. This reportedly
brought him under the purview
of Mossad, Israel’s secret service.
Under Israeli law, explains He
brew University criminal law pro
fessor Dr. Mordechai Kremnitzer,
“Israeli security agents possess
an extra-territorial power that
has nothing to do with extradi
tion. If an Israeli citizen—any
citizen—has committed offenses
against the vital interests of the
state, say hijacking an Israeli
plane,”explains Kremnitzer,“and
we can lay our hands on him, he
can be brought back to Israel for
criminal trial.”
Kremnitzer adds that normally
such an extra-territorial act
without the benefit of extradi
tion papers might be considered
i If an Israeli citizen...has committed offenses against the
vital interests of the state, say hijacking an Israeli plane,
and we can lay our hands on him, he can be brought back
to Israel for criminal trial. 5
—Dr. Mordechai Kremnitzer
illegal. "But not when it is done
by official agents, performing
under orders,” says Kremnitzer.
“Under the doctrine, kidnapping
would be covered (under Israeli
law).”
Once taken into custody, the
defendant’s right to a lawyer and
trial can be substantially delayed.
Two relevant arrest provisions
apply. The first is the Powers in
Emergency Law (Arrests), origi
nally a British Mandatory sta
tute but revised into Israeli law in
1979. Under this act, Defense
Minister Yitzhak Rabin, acting
under reasonable cause, has the
power to “order administrative
detention for a period of time not
to exceed six months, so long as
the accused is brought before a
presiding judge of the district
criminal court within 48 hours,”
explains Kremnitzer. The judge
must be shown the evidence justi
fying the detention, but there is
no requirement that the accused
be presented with the evidence or
represented by an atttorney, he
adds.
“While there is a general duty
to allow the the accused access to
counsel, exactly when that access
occurs is not spelled out,” con
tinues Kremnitzer. Administra
tive detention without charge or
trial can be renewed by a judge
every six months. “Yes,” admits
Kremnitzer, “such detention is
renewable ad infinitum.”
Actually, most democratic na
tions maintain such laws. In
America, the laws permitting the
concentration of Japanese dur
ing World War II were not re
pealed until the 1970s. However,
a host of other sedition and spe
cial incarceration statutes arising
out of the World War II era
remain on America’s books. For
example. Secret Service advance
men regularly make high-risk
people “disappear” for a few hours
or days to ensure the safety of a
traveling president. In Britain,
internment laws during the 1970s
permitted suspects in Northern
Ireland to be arrested and de
tained without trial.
Israel, trapped in a state of real
emergency since its inception,
has applied “administrative det
ention laws” almost exclusively
to Arab terrorists. For instance,
eight seaborne PLO terrorists
who tried to come ashore in July
1985 have been in administrative
detention until just a few days
ago when their incarceration was
converted to “awaiting trial with
out bail.”
But the Vanunu case has
proved to average Israelis that
such laws are applicable to Israeli
citizens as well. Hence the objec
tion in Knesset by leftwing MK
Yossi Sarid, who complained,
“People should not simply dis
appear in a democratic society.”
The second possible arrest
venue is the “state security” pro
visions of the ordinary penal code.
Section 125 allows a suspect to
be denied access to a judge and a
lawyer for up to 15 days. Israeli
officials have refused to indicate
under which law Vanunu was
arrested. Even Vanunu’s attor
ney, Amnon Zichroni, sworn to
secrecy, declares, “1 cannot com
ment on what law was used to
arrest him.” This reporter has
authoritatively learned, however,
that if Vanunu was indeed arrested
aboard a yacht in international
waters, it was under penal code
section 125. Because of seagoing
travel time, he could not be
brought before a judge within the
48 hours called for by adminis
trative detention.
Regardless of which arrest
provision is used, the arrest itself
becomes a state secret. In other
words, a suspect might not only
disappear, few if anyone might
discover that he was sitting in an
Israeli jail—the very situation
surrounding Vanunu’s arrest.
There is a rationale here. It
might compromise state security
to acknowledge what covert ac
tions a person was engaged in or
where he was when he committed
the offense—especially for a state
such as Israel which has an unof
ficial presence in so many places.
This same approach has often
been used in America in the trial
of turncoats, most recently the
defense employee who sold spy
satellite information to the
Soviets. Prosecutors could not
determine how much the man
had revealed. Hence, little was
released about his crime for fear
of further damaging national se
curity.
Providing a legal defense on
Israeli security cases is equally
secretive. Vanunu’s attorney,
Amnon Zichroni, is one of a
handful of Israeli lawyers certi
fied to arct in security cases. Gen
erally, Zichroni is not permitted
to acknowledge any details of the
case, even that he is the attorney
of record. But a week ago, after
an international pressure cam
paign mounted. Prime Minister
Yitzhak Shamir, Foreign Minis
ter Shimon Peres and Defense
Minister Yitzhak Rabin jointly
decided to publicly concede that
Vanunu was indeed in an Israeli
jail.
Shortly thereafter, “I was given
permission to admit that I was
his attorney,” explains Zichroni.
“I think they wanted the world to
know he was being properly rep
resented.” Zichroni will not reveal
how or when he was hired, or
whether the first contact came
from Vanunu or security officials
acting on his behalf—only that
Vanunu is satisfied that he is
properly represented.
Ironically, Zichroni was also
hired by the Sunday Times to
locate Vanunu, “but I could not
reveal to my other client that I
actually knew where Vanunu was
and had constant contact with
him.” So secretive was Zichroni’s
defense mission, that even his
closest office aides were not
informed. Legal briefs were re
portedly were not typed by his
regular staff, but by “special ar
rangements,” presumably high
security clerical staff. “I didn’t
even tell my wife,” admits Zich-
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