By DPA
Jerusalem : Israeli nuclear spy Mordechai Vanunu is returning to prison after a Jerusalem court convicted him Monday to six months jail for violating the terms of his parole, Israel Radio reported.
Vanunu, 52, had three years earlier completed an 18-year sentence for selling photographs and information about Israel's nuclear programme to London's The Sunday Times in 1986.
But Israeli authorities placed restrictions on his release, including a ban on travel abroad and on talking to the media and foreign nationals without prior clearance by the Shin Bet internal security organization. Shin Bet claimed he was still able to harm state security by revealing more classified information.
The Moroccan-born Israeli, who worked at an Israeli nuclear plant near the southern Israeli town of Dimona in the late 1970s and early 1980s, however has insisted he had nothing new to reveal.
The Jerusalem Magistrate's Court earlier this year convicted Vanunu of having violated the terms of his release 14 times, including holding contacts with journalists and attempting to visit Bethlehem in the West Bank.
Israeli media reported the court's sentence was unexpected, with the prosecution expecting a suspended sentence meant as a deterrent.
Vanunu's attorneys had charged prior to the conviction that their client's parole terms were "unreasonable."
But the court upheld the terms, insisting the convicted nuclear spy still had classified information "stored in his memory" which could harm Israeli security.