Israeli authorities want Mordechai Vanunu back in jail again for talking openly to the foreign press after the nuclear whistle blower already spent 18 years behind bars - 11 in solitary confinement - for trumped-up crimes he says he never committed.

Vanunu, 51, was hauled before an Israeli court last week on charges he violated his release agreement, including violations of speaking to the press and leaving occupied Israel.

The state last Wednesday began introducing evidence of video recordings, printed articles and radio audio recordings where Vanunu granted interviews to the foreign press in what prosecutors are alleging is in a blatant violation of his release terms.

If found guilty, Vanunu could be sentenced to six months in jail and/or fined. The trial was continued until Feb. 9.

"I have done nothing wrong and I will not let the Israeli government take away my God-given freedom of speech rights," said Vanunu last Friday on Greg Szymanski's Radio show, The Investigative Journal, making his comments from Israel where he stays in a Christian halfway house.

Vanunu added that Israel's nuclear stockpile has at least doubled in size from 200 nuclear war heads in 1986 to more than 400.

"All I ever wanted to do was stop nuclear proliferation for the betterment of mankind. Now they are trying to unjustly punish me again for things said more than 20 years ago and are on the public record," he said.

For talking openly since his release, Israel wants to again punish Vanunu for what authorities claim is another violation of divulging national security secrets regarding Israel's nuclear weapons program.

However, Vanunu and other observers in Israel, including former President Jimmy Carter, who met him in an impromptu meeting in Jerusalem last week, hope the former whistle blower beats the charges and can leave Israel once and for all.

"It was good surprise to find myself in the restaurant eating dinnerwhile Jimmy Carter came to have his dinner in the American Colony restaurant, where I was invited by a friend Tom Hopkin," said Vanunu about the short meeting with the former President in the Jerusalem restaurant. "While Carter and his wife were leaving his wife recognized me and came to say hello. She introduced me to Mr. Carter and they said they will be very happy to see me in U.S.

"Mrs. Carter and the former President took me aside and privately told me they hope and pray for my freedom. He said he when he returned to the states he would try and help me. I also ask anybody else listening in America to try and lend assistance to my cause, as the American government and Israel are behind trying to keep me silenced."

After serving 18 years for trying to tell the world about Israel's nuclear capability in the mid 1980's, he was released from an Israeli prison near Tel Aviv in 2004 for divulging information regarding Israel's nuclear weapons program and its nuclear reactor in Dimona, where he worked for nine years as a technician/scientist.

The Sunday Times of London finally published a full account of Vanunu's story, calling the attention to the world in 1986 that Israel had already constructed 200 nuclear atomic bombs. He verified his claim with photographs of the Dimona site, verified by experts who eventually confirmed that Israel had nuclear weapons.

But Vanunu was arrested in Rome before the article was published by what he called a combination Mossad and CIA undercover kidnapping. Once back in Israel,Vanunu claimed he was not given a fair trial and quickly sentenced to a maximum term for treason as well as being termed a foreign spy.

Since being released, Vanunu claims he has been closely watched by authorities, as his activities have been illegally monitored and his movement traced by Mossad agents assigned to his case in order to make sure he keeps quiet and doesn't leave Israel.

"Although I have been released, I still feel like a prisoner unable to freely move and speak," added Vanunu on last week's radio show broadcast in America.

Last November, Vanunu was held in an Israeli jail for 36 hours before being released after authorities held him on suspicion of breaking his parole agreement. Vanun was picked up by police at a border checkpoint after he visited a Christian church in the small town of Aram, near Jerusalem.

He was later released after lawyers convinced an Israeli judge the arrest was contrived and Vanunu had no intentions of leaving Israel.

After being released, Vanunu said his return to jail brought back a terrible reminder of his long jail term, including 11 years in solitary confinement.

"It was the first time I sat alone in prison since being released and it was very difficult as it brought back terrible memories," said Vanunu. "I think they are looking for any reason to put me back in jail.

"After being held in isolation for 36 hours, when I finally saw the judge, the prosecution wanted to detain me under house arrest for two weeks and give me a stiff fine. But my lawyer successfully argued that where I was detained was not in an unoccupied territory and that the terms of my parole are vague.

Regarding his recent court case and trial, Vanunu last week had harsh words for the authorities who he says are wrongfully again trying to put him in jail.

"The original trial date was for the 15th Jan., but the SHABAK moved it to the 25th, today on Palestinian election day so no foreign media arrived and only three local journalists were in the court," said Vanunu from Jerusalem.

"The state prosecution presented the court with copies of interviews with foreign media. Most of this evidence was in the form of textor sound downloads from the internet. Other evidence was video and disc copies of interviews by me with foreign television network. Amongthe media bodies listed: BBC World, David Frost BBC, ABC Australia-Late Night with Tony Jones, Radio KPFA in the US, Greg Szymanski U.S. Investigative Journal radio show, Le Figaro from France and Asahi Shimbun from Japan. Other interviews were from internet websites and also included as an item, internet chats.

"Avigdor Feldman, my lawyer, argued that most of the evidence was not the original copies but downloads from the internet. Also he said that the foreign identity of the interviewers is not proved by the state and that many names such as Amy Goodman, Tony Jones and Greg Szymanski could be easily found in the Israeli Resident Registry. Avigdor argued that State should have made some efforts to prove the foreign identity of those who were supposed to have interviewed me.

"This evidence was accompanied by a testimony given by a police officer who interrogated me last year in a police station. This police interrogation was recorded by secret video camera without my knowledge. Also they brought the policeman who arrested me on my way to Bethlehem in Christmas Eve 2004.

"This was the first session and it took some four hours, and the following session will be on the 9th of February so more witnesses for the police can testify.

"So this is "the unfair trial" that Israel wants, at the same time they are hiding the fact that this is a trial not about 'state security', as they have said in the past 20 years, but about the fact of me speaking to the press! No nuclear secrets are involved and I have no more secrets now then I had in 1986.!

"Never in all my court cases over the years have I found the Israeli looking for the truth and seeking justice and I doubt they will now. We don't know what will be the outcome, verdict or sentence will be, but my lawyer said no matter what I say I will be found guilty."