Mordechai Vanunu, the nuclear technician who gave details of Israel's nuclear programme to the Sunday Times of London 13 years ago, was regarded as a potential security risk by his employers, newly released transcripts of his trial reveal.
Details of the security blunders, which enabled Mr Vanunu to photograph the most sensitive installations at the Dimona reactor where he worked, are included in partial transcripts of his behind-closed-doors trial, which ended with his conviction for treason and an 18-year jail sentence that he is still serving.
The transcripts, published yesterday over 10 pages of Israel's top-selling daily, Yediot Ahronot, underline the horror Mr Vanunu's revelations about Israel's stockpile of 100 nuclear warheads caused the government. The court papers also demolish the theory, raised intermittently over the years, that Mr Vanunu was the unwitting errand-boy of the government, deliberately allowed to disseminate information on the nuclear programme to boost Israel's deterrent capability.
Mr Shimon Peres, who as prime minister in 1986 ordered the Mossad to kidnap Mr Vanunu and bring him back for trial, is quoted testifying as to the damage caused by the revelations: overseas suppliers for the programme would feel compromised, Mr Peres said, Israel was being viewed with greater suspicion, and Arab states had been given an incentive to try and match Israel's achievements.
Now the minister for regional co-operation in Mr Ehud Barak's government, Mr Peres said yesterday he regretted the publication of the trial transcripts, since this might trigger new international pressure on Israel.
Mr Vanunu's brother, Asher, by contrast, welcomed the publication, and said he hoped it might accelerate his release.
In his court testimony, Mr Vanunu said he had given the Sunday Times details of the Dimona programme because he wanted to force his government to tell the truth about its nuclear arms, and to ensure that the programme was properly supervised. Israel, even since his revelations, has never formally confirmed its nuclear capability.