Trial & Error

Mordechai Vanunu worked as a technician at Israel's top-secret Dimona nuclear research complex for nine years before being dismissed in 1985 for pro-Arab sympathies. He left Israel on a journey that finished in Sydney, Australia, where he became friends with a clergyman, John McKnight. As a result of his conversion to Christianity, he decided to expose Israel's clandestine activities. Retaliation was swift and ruthless. Vanunu was kipnapped by Mossad agents and tried behind the closed doors of a Jerusalem courtroom. Convicted for espionage, treason and betraying state secrets, he was sentenced to 18 years in jail. Despite being nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize and having his case taken up by the European Parliament, Vanunu's appeals against the sentence have been rejected and he remains in solitary confinement, forbidden to speak even to the priest who brings him communion. This is his story, originally published in 1991, now with a new epilogue.