MORDECHAI VANUNU, the former technician who exposed Israel’s secret nuclear weapons programme, was detained by Israeli police for several hours yesterday, seven months after completing an eighteen-year prison sentence for treason.

The nuclear whistleblower was arrested on suspicion of leaking “national secrets” in a police operation during which armed officers stormed the walled compound of the Anglican Cathedral in East Jerusalem.

His supporters said that the police had used the death of Yassir Arafat as cover to make the arrest, in the hope that it would be ignored. Mr Vanunu was seized by some 30 armed police officers inside St George’s Cathedral in the Old City, where he had been staying since his release.

An Israeli police spokesman said that he was under investigation for violating the terms of his release, which include bans on leaving Israel for one year, speaking to foreigners or journalists, discussing nuclear secrets and approaching foreign embassies and Israel’s borders or exit points.

Bishop Riah Abu al-Assal, the head of the Anglican Church in Jerusalem, said: “About 30 armed police stormed into the cathedral close, some of them climbing over the walls.

“They terrified the guests, who were having their breakfast at the time. I told them that this was most unfortunate behaviour, but as usual they couldn’t care less.

“They led Mordechai off to his room, which they said they wanted to search, then they took him away. He was quiet and calm throughout.”

Rayna Moss, co-ordinator of the International Committee to Free Vanunu, said: “They want to set him up. They want to bury him along with Arafat — they chose their timing to do this very well.”

Last night Mr Vanunu was released on bail, on condition that he spends the next seven days under “house arrest” at St George’s Cathedral. “Mr Vanunu has agreed to abide by all the restrictions under which he was released in April, and the police investigation will continue,” Gil Kleiman, a police spokesman, said.

Mr Vanunu was convicted in 1988 after he was kidnapped by Mossad, the Israeli foreign intelligence service, in a “honey-trap” operation. He was lured from Britain to Italy by “Cindy”, a Mossad agent posing as an American, from where he was shipped back to Israel, bound and gagged.

His country was determined to bring him back to stand trial on spying and treason charges after he revealed details to The Sunday Times of its secret nuclear reactor in Dimona, in the southern Negev desert.

His information and photographs led experts to conclude that Israel has the world’s sixth-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, including hundreds of warheads.

Mr Vanunu, 49, a Moroccan Jew who converted to Christianity, has given a series of interviews since his release. He told the BBC: “I have no regrets in spite of the fact that I have paid a heavy punishment, a large price. I think it was worth it.”

In September he told a Greek radio station that he did not feel safe in Israel and wanted to leave as soon as possible. “The United States is pushing Iran with respect to its nuclear weapons programme. It needs to do the same thing to Israel,” he added. “You can’t focus on Iran and forget about Israel.” He also told the Associated Press news agency that he wanted to replace his Israeli citizenship with a foreign one, perhaps Palestinian. “In Israel I am regarded as a traitor . . . and since my release they are not respecting my human rights, my freedom of speech, my freedom of movement,” he said. Mr Vanunu added that he planned to continue his antinuclear campaign, but that he had no more secrets to reveal. “All I knew was published 18 years ago,” he said.

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