Jonathan Pollard, who was sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of leaking sensitive information about the U.S.to Israel, was released after 30 years by the us government.
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The 61-year-old checked in at a federal probation office in New York City on Friday morning, following his release from a prison North Carolina. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requested President Barack Obama not prohibit Pollard from leaving the US, a standard prohibition for parolees.
“As someone who raised Jonathan’s case for years with successive American presidents, I had long hoped this day would come”, Netanyahu said. However, his lawyers are now fighting his parole conditions so that he can move to Israel and reunite with his second wife.
But a US official said Friday that Pollard would have to stay in the United States. Most Israeli officials chose their words with care Friday, reportedly under instructions to remain low-key to avoid stirring antagonism that could sabotage the chances of Pollard being allowed to depart the US for Israel eventually. The release took place shortly after midnight in a well-planned deception meant to make sure that cameramen and news crews staking out around the prison gates would not get a glimpse of the spy as he was set free.
But President Obama’s deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said that “the president does not have any plans to alter the terms of his parole”.
The lawyers said Pollard had been a “model prisoner” and that there was no reason to fear he might commit acts of violence or reveal further USA intelligence that by now, in any case, would be so outdated as to be meaningless.
Over the years, flurries of reports had claimed Pollard’s parole was near, sometimes as part of a deal to advance the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians, as was the case as recently as the last round of talks, which collapsed 18 months ago.
His lawyers argue the Parole Commission has “imposed onerous and oppressive conditions of parole” including wearing an ankle monitor. “We heard about Jonathan Pollard being released so we altered our schedule and slowed it down and changed it so we would be here”, Jackson said.
The supporters who have lobbied for Pollard’s freedom argued that his sentence was too harsh, and that he had provided information critical to Israel’s national security.
Pollard served 30 years for selling intelligence secrets to Israel.
He immediately traveled to NY.
Though he has said his guilty plea was coerced, he has also expressed regret, telling The Associated Press in a 1998 interview that he did not consider himself a hero.
“The people of Israel embrace him”, Bennett told Army Radio, though he added that he had been asked “not to speak expansively” about Pollard’s release.
Convicted spy Jonathan Pollard says he can’t comment on his release from prison.
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In the eyes of many Israelis and American Jews at the time, Pollard wanted to help a US ally by providing Israel with intelligence information he believed the country should have. In 2014 many in the Israeli media speculated about a deal between the U.S. secretary of state, John Kerry, and Netanyahu that would free Pollard in exchange for a freeze on contentious Israeli settlements.
