"Vanunu is suspected of passing classified information to unauthorized parties," police spokesman Gil Kleiman said at the time of the detention. "He is also suspected of violating the terms of his release."

He was later released and put under house arrest after police found Vanunu had not violated the law other than by giving interviews to the foreign media, security sources said. They said the detention was a warning to him to obey restrictions on contact with foreigners.

Israel had placed a number of restrictions on Vanunu after his release, including a ban on him talking to foreign media and traveling abroad, although he has since given numerous media interviews.

Vanunu was arrested by police while eating his breakfast at the St. George's Cathedral guest house. Police confiscated papers and a computer from his room.

"This type of entry into a sacred space must not be tolerated by the churches throughout the world," said the Anglican bishop in Jerusalem, the Rt. Rev. Riah Abu El-Assal, in an appeal to other Christian leaders around the world.

Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, in letters to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and US Secretary of State Colin Powell, had expressed concern about Vanunu's arrest.

"This violation of sacred space greatly disrespects our Church's presence and mission, and it is particularly disturbing that it occurred at this time when restraint on all sides is so desperately needed in the wake of Yasser Arafat's death," Griswold noted in his letter to Powell.

A former technician at Israel's main nuclear facility in Dimona, Vanunu was abducted by Israel's Mossad spy agency from Rome in 1986 after he provided information to Britain's Sunday Times newspaper on Israel's nuclear program.

--Michele Green is a staff writer of Ecumenical News International.

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