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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- See Chiefs, page 25. 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