Open Letter from Mordechaï Vanunu

December 9th, 2005 at 18:28 Björn Hallberg

Voltaire Network - My Dears Friends.

On 15 January 2006 I will stand trial in the Israeli court. I will be charged with 21 counts of speaking or meeting with foreigners, which Israel has said I am not allowed to do. These restrictions were imposed on me on 21 April 2004 upon my release from 18 years of isolation in prison.

I am asking all of my friends and supporters all over the world to help and support me in this very important case. I think this trial will concentrate on the issue of freedom of speech. What I need from you is to send information about your country’s history, experience, and expertise in freedom of speech cases. These will help set a precedent from other countries and will act as an example for Israel’s democratic system to follow. I would also like to have examples from the earliest democratic states such as Greece and the Roman Republic. I would also like to have examples from speeches of the Greek philosophers such as Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle. Further, if you know about anybody who was prosecuted for their freedom of speech in this modern age, please find out his/her defense and arguments (poems would be welcome as well) and send them to me. All of this will be sent to my lawyer it will be presented by me during the trial.

I think this will be a landmark trial because we are challenging Israel’s democracy to prove that these restrictions are contrary to the democratic standard all over the world. It is the right of every human being to exercise his/her freedom of speech without any restrictions.

Thank you very much for your help. We hope to succeed in our stand against this barbaric order.

Entry 366 filed under: Middle East. This entry was posted 3 years, 1 month ago. RSS feed for comments on this post.