OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, May 28 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A British journalist released by Israeli police said the Jewish state should be ashamed for arresting him, keeping him in solitary confinement in a "dungeon" and limiting him to only "two hours of sleep."

Peter Hounam was released late Thursday, May 27, and lashed out bitterly at Israeli security standards.

"I really have to question the standards in this country," he said, according to Israeli daily Ha'aretz. "This is a country which prides itself on being a democracy in the Middle East, and yet what I've experienced in the last 24 hours I'm afraid doesn't stand up to that."

Israeli security forces had stopped Hounam, who exposed the revelations of nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu in 1986, accusing him of espionage, kept him in detention for 24 hours.

The journalist denied being a spy as he was released from an (occupied) Jerusalem prison after he was detained by the Shin Beth security forces late Wednesday, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"I'm not a spy on nuclear things ... I do not think that they (the Israeli security forces) did a very good job," Hounam told reporters waiting outside the prison.

"I've been through some difficult experiences," he said, adding that he had been helped by the British consulate and lawyer Avigdor Feldman.

He also complained that he had been deprived of sleep and prevented from speaking to his wife during his time in Israeli custody.

Leader of the House of Commons Peter Hain told British parliament earlier Thursday the government in London was "very concerned" about the arrest and had sought more information from Israel.

Israeli Army radio said Hounam was suspected of having been in contact with Vanunu, a one-time technician at the Dimona nuclear plant in southern Israel who is still barred from talking to foreigners without prior security service authorization.

According to Ha'aretz Friday, May 28, copies of a videotaped interview given by Vanunu to a local journalist Saturday, May 22, may already have been smuggled out of Israel, the Shin Bet security service admitted Thursday, meaning that the agency may have failed in its task of preventing this.

Vanunu, left, hugged by Hounam after being released from Israeli jails

The videotape was the main reason for the controversial detention of Hounam. The Shin Bet claims that Yael Lotan, a leftist activist who conducted the videotaped interview, was "a front for Peter Hounam and the BBC team," according to the Israeli daily.

The Shin Bet, however, said that its initial investigation indicates that the interview did not violate the limitations set on Vanunu's activities upon his release from prison last month, Ha'aretz said.

"The Shin Bet attempted Thursday to justify its decision to detain Hounam, calling the journalist 'a central source of risk for an information leak.'

"The organization made extraordinary efforts to explain its position, with the deputy head of the service meeting with foreign correspondents at a Tel Aviv hotel Thursday night to brief them on the Shin Bet's version of events," according to the paper.
The detention of Hounam has evoked sharp criticisms from journalists, politicians and human rights groups.

Further defending its position, the Shin Bet said it had warned Vanunu's brother, Meir, that Vanunu was not to meet with foreign parties without prior permission, yet Vanunu met with Hounam a number of times, according to Ha'aretz.

"We had to know what was on the tape, and we had no other way of doing so except by detaining and interrogating [Hounam]," the paper quoted the Shin Bet as saying.

Vanunu was abducted by Israeli secret service agents in Italy, smuggled back to Israel and then jailed in 1986 after leaking top-secret details about the Dimona plant to The Sunday Times.

He was freed on April 21 after 18 years in prison, but is now subject to a series of sweeping restrictions.

Hounam left The Sunday Times a few years ago and has since worked as an independent journalist. He had been in Israel since Vanunu's release.