THE Israeli government was yesterday accused of intimidation in ordering more than 30 heavily armed police commandos to raid St George’s Anglican Cathedral in Jerusalem and to arrest the nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu on suspicion of disclosing classified information to the foreign press.

Avigdor Feldman, his lawyer, said that the authorities had found nothing incriminating when they ransacked his room. “People are seeking revenge,” he said.

“Mordechai has made it plain that he revealed all he knew when he spoke to The Sunday Times in 1986. Some of the people behind this intimidation must be intellectually challenged if they cannot see it is counterproductive and that he should be free to leave the country.”

Feldman said that when he finally managed to see Vanunu he found him upset after 10 hours of interrogation by a police international crimes unit but “characteristically defiant”.

“They attempted to persuade Mordechai to obey a ban on speaking to foreigners, but he refused,” Feldman said.

After appearing before a magistrate, Vanunu was released on bail on condition that he remain under “house arrest” at the cathedral for the next seven days.

Feldman said that warrants to search his room there and arrest him had been issued by a judge some time ago but police had waited until last Thursday, the day of Yasser Arafat’s death, to act.

“They were hoping to minimise publicity,” the lawyer added.

In 1986 Vanunu was kidnapped by Israeli secret agents and sentenced to 18 years in prison for treason and aggravated espionage after revealing the inner secrets of Israel’s Dimona nuclear weapons plant to this newspaper.

Since his release last April he has sought sanctuary at the cathedral after receiving death threats. He is banned from leaving the country, from going near ports and airports and from communicating with non-Israelis, but he has repeatedly ignored the latter rule. On October 24 he gave a live interview by satellite on Breakfast with Frost, the BBC TV programme.

As last week’s raid began the cathedral was sealed off by a police cordon. But before the officers stormed into his room, Vanunu managed to telephone Feldman’s office.

Furious at the intrusion, the bishop, the Right Rev Riah Abu El-Assal, insisted that all police with guns should leave immediately, to which they agreed. Officers seized Vanunu’s laptop and personal papers before taking him away for questioning.

The bishop had been preparing to leave for Cairo to attend Arafat’s funeral but fired off letters to church leaders, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, seeking their support and condemning the Israeli government’s actions.

“In the 100 years of the cathedral’s history, such an event has never taken place. It is a sacred place and should be respected,” he said.

After being released on bail Vanunu told reporters that he would continue to speak to foreign media organisations.

He claimed that Yehiel Horev, a senior official at the Israeli defence ministry who was in charge of protecting weapons secrets, had an obsession about him.

A police representative said that Vanunu had been under surveillance for some time.

The Israeli embassy in London claimed that Vanunu had “consistently violated” the restrictions placed on him and that this had been done “with the full knowledge of his hosts in St George’s Cathedral”.

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