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On 28 March 1988, Vanunu was convicted. He was sentenced to eighteen years of imprisonment from the date of his abduction in Rome.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1999-11-25-9911250182-story.html|title=PAPER PRINTS EXCERPTS FROM TRIAL OF ISRAELI SPY|first=Tribune News|last=Services|website=chicagotribune.com|date=25 November 1999 }}</ref> The Israeli government refused to release the transcript of the court case until, under a threat of legal action, it agreed to let censored extracts be published in ''[[Yedioth Ahronoth]]'', an Israeli newspaper, in late 1999.{{citation needed|date=January 2018}}
Vanunu served his sentence at [[Shikma Prison]] in [[Ashkelon]],<ref name="guardian.co.uk"/> where he was held in administratively imposed solitary confinement. On 3 May 1989, he appealed his conviction and sentence to the Israeli Supreme Court and was brought from prison in a closed police vehicle to the Supreme Court for an appeal hearing.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jta.org/1989/05/04/archive/vanunu-appeal-opens-in-israel-as-italians-rally-behind-him|title=Vanunu Appeal Opens in Israel As Italians Rally Behind Him|publisher=JTA.org|date=4 May 1989}}</ref> In 1990, his appeal was rejected.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jta.org/1990/05/29/archive/high-court-rejects-vanunus-appeal-will-decide-on-publishing-decision|title=High Court Rejects Vanunu's Appeal, Will Decide on Publishing Decision|date=29 May 1990}}</ref> The following year, an appeal to the Supreme Court arguing for better prison conditions was rejected.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jta.org/1991/11/05/archive/vanunu-loses-bid-for-better-conditions|title=Vanunu Loses Bid for Better Conditions|date=5 November 1991}}</ref> On 12 March 1998, after having spent over eleven years in solitary confinement, Vanunu was released into the general prison population.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/65034.stm|title=BBC News - WORLD - Israel ends 12-year solitary|website=news.bbc.co.uk}}</ref>
While in prison, Vanunu took part in small acts of defiance, such as refusing psychiatric treatment, refusing to initiate conversations with the guards, reading only English-language newspapers rather than Hebrew ones, refusing to work, refusing to eat lunch when it was served, and watching only [[BBC|BBC television]]. "He is the most stubborn, principled and tough person I have ever met", said his lawyer, Avigdor Feldman. In 1998, Vanunu appealed to the Supreme Court for his Israeli citizenship to be revoked. The Interior Minister denied Vanunu's request on grounds that he did not have another citizenship. He was denied parole because he refused to promise that he would never speak of the Dimona facility or his kidnapping and imprisonment.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=229406|title=Vanunu to High Court: I no longer want Israeli citizenship|work=JPost.com|access-date=15 June 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2002/jun/05/familyandrelationships.israelandthepalestinians|title = Real lives: Our son, the rebel| website=[[TheGuardian.com]] |date = 5 June 2002}}</ref> Many critics argue that Vanunu had no additional information that would pose a real security threat to Israel and that the government's only motivation is to avoid political embarrassment and financial complications for itself and allies such as the United States. By not acknowledging possession of nuclear weapons, Israel avoids a US legal prohibition on funding countries that proliferate [[weapons of mass destruction]]. Such an admission would prevent Israel from receiving over $2 billion each year in military and other aid from [[Federal government of the United States|Washington]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/frontpage/story/0,,1970963,00.html|title=Calls for Olmert to resign after nuclear gaffe|date=13 December 2006|work=The Guardian|location=London, UK|first=Luke|last=Harding|access-date=13 May 2010}}</ref> [[Ray Kidder]], then a senior American nuclear scientist at [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]], has said:{{blockquote|On the basis of this research and my own professional experience, I am ready to challenge any official assertion that Mr. Vanunu possesses any technical nuclear information not already made public.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nonviolence.org/vanunu/archive2/jan26.html|title=U.S. Expert: It's Safe to Release Vanunu|publisher=Nonviolence.org (from [[Ha'aretz]])|date=26 January 2000}}</ref>}}
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