Israel allows Vanunu out of solitary confinement

A lawyer for the imprisoned Israeli nuclear technician, Mordechai Vanunu, says his client has been moved out of solitary confinement for the first time in twelve years.

The lawyer Avigdor Feldman said Mr Vanunu had told him he had been allowed to leave his cell and talk to other prisoners in the jail.

Israeli agents abducted Mr Vanunu from Europe and he was sentenced to eighteen years in prison for revealing details of the Israeli nuclear weapons programme to a British newspaper The Sunday Times.

The lawyer said the government appeared to have changed its position on Mr Vanunu's solitary confinement in part because of international pressure.

He said several human rights groups and foreign leaders, including the Norwegian prime minister, had taken up Mr Vanunu's case.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service