Jonathan Pollard, spy for Israel, freed on parole after 30 years in prison
American Jonathan Pollard, a Navy intelligence analyst who pleaded guilty in 1987 to passing information to Israel, was released Friday from a North Carolina prison after serving 30 years and immediately challenged the conditions of his parole.
Pollard, greeted outside the Butner, N.C. federal prison by his wife, Ester, headed to Manhattan for his first Shabbat dinner with her outside of a government facility, according to Pollard's lawyer, the Post reported.
“I have waited for this day for 30 long years, unbelievable.” Anne, his ex-wife told Army Radio, an Israeli station. “It's an amazing moment.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Twitter that "the people of Israel welcome the release of Jonathan Pollard" and that he “had long hoped this day would come.”
“After three long and difficult decades, Jonathan has been reunited with his family,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “May this Sabbath bring him much joy and peace that will continue in the years and decades ahead.”
Under the terms of his parole on a life sentence, the 61-year-old Pollard will be required to remain in the United States for five years and cannot leave for Israel as he has requested. He will also be barred from giving interviews and from going online without extensive monitoring, Ynet News reported.
Under federal guidelines at the time of Pollard's conviction, a person serving a life sentence is eligible for mandatory parole after 30 years unless the Parole Commission "determines that he has seriously or frequently violated institution rules or that there is a reasonable probability that he will commit any federal, state or local crime.''
U.S. officials have not asserted those provisions to challenge Pollard's release.
"The Department of Justice has always maintained that Jonathan Pollard should serve his full sentence for the serious crimes he committed, which in this case is a 30-year sentence, as mandated by statute,'' according to a statement issued Thursday by the Justice Department.
Hours after he was driven away from the prison, Pollard checked in with probation officers at a federal courthouse in New York City, then emerged into a throng of journalists. He wore loose-fitting khakis, a blue yarmulke and a slight smile.
“I can’t comment on anything today,”said Pollard. One of his lawyers and a U.S. marshal, grasping Pollard firmly by the arm, escorted him through the crowd of jostling photographers to a car.
Pollard’s attorneys have filed court papers challenging his “onerous and oppressive” parole conditions, the Associated Press reports.
Those include a requirement that he wear a GPS ankle bracelet and submit to inspections of his computer at his home or at his job, which his lawyers said will be in the finance department of a New York investment firm.
Pollard’s lawyers complained that wearing a GPS monitor would be harmful to his health because he has severe diabetes and chronic swelling in his legs and ankles. They said the computer monitoring is unnecessary because he no longer possesses any useful classified information.
Soon after the Parole Commission's decision in July to free Pollard, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld issued a tweet, saying that "releasing Pollard was a bad idea in 1998 & 2001. It is not a better idea today.''
Seymour Reich, a former president of B’nai Brith International who visited Pollard twice in prison, said that while he believed Pollard broke the law and deserved to be punished, his sentence was overly harsh. Like other supporters, he believes Pollard was “double-crossed” into thinking he’d be afforded leniency in exchange for a guilty plea.
“I hope that he settles down and lives the remaining years as best as he can,” Reich said, according to the AP.
Contributing: Kevin Johnson