Parole For Mordecai Vanunu

EDM number 1751 in 2001-02, proposed by Llew Smith on 15/10/2002.

That this House warmly applauds the Nuclear-Free Future Foundation International Resistance Award made in absentia to Mordecai Vanunu, the brave nuclear whistleblower, on 5th October at a ceremony in St. Petersburg, Russia; recognises Mr Vanunu as a true international citizen acting as an inspector of Israel's nuclear weapons of mass destruction, in a selfless and courageous act of ethical obedience to a power higher than the State; notes the citation on his award, made in his absence in jail in Israel, where he has been for 16 years, many in solitary confinement, states that while working as a technician at Israel's Dimona nuclear complex from 1976 to 1985, Mordecai Vanunu learned of his country's covert production of plutonium for nuclear weapons; further notes that Mr Vanunu believed it was his responsibility to inform the citizens of Israel as well as the rest of the world that nuclear weapons are being built and stockpiled in his land, especially in the light of Middle East tensions; recalls that on 5th October 1986, the Sunday Times, carried the headline 'Revealed: The Secrets of Israel's Nuclear Arsenal,' over a story based on interviews with Mr Vanunu and that five days prior to the publication of the story he was lured to Rome and kidnapped there by Israeli secret agents, taken back to Israel where he was secretly tried and convicted of treason and espionage, and subsequently spent the first 11 years of his incarceration in solitary confinement; believes Mr Vanunu should have been applauded for his actions, not incarcerated; now notes that Mr Vanunu comes up for parole on 29th October; and calls upon Her Majesty's Government to make all efforts, directly to the Israeli Government, in support of this application from a brave man.

This motion has been signed by a total of 59 MPs.