Lawyers for Jonathan Pollard, the former US Navy Intelligence officer convicted of spying for Israel, has been granted parole will be set free from prison in North Carolina on 21 November after serving the required 30-year minimum of his life sentence.
The release of Mr Pollard, who was convicted in 1985 of passing suitcases of classified materials to the Israeli intelligence services, will rid the US-Israeli relationship of a long-running irritant. A parole board at the North Carolina prison where he is being held decided to end his incarceration by unanimous vote.
“We look forward to seeing our client on the outside in less than four months," said Mr Pollard's lawyers, Eliot Lauer and Jacques Semmelman, in a joint statement.
Jonathan Pollard speaks during an interview on 15 May 1998.
Mr Pollard who is now 60 and in poor health will be required under the terms of the parole offer, however, to remain in the US for five years following his release, depriving him of the chance of traveling immediately to Israel where he has acquired the status of a hero of the nation. His lawyers indicated, however, that President Barack Obama could choose to waive the 5-year requirement.
Officials in Washington were quick last week to deny media reports that the Obama administration had lobbied for Mr Pollard’s release in hopes that it would soothe the Israeli government’s anger with the recently concluded arms control and sanctions-lifting deal with Iran.
His lawyers said today that the granting of parole indeed had nothing to do with the Iran deal and Israel’s continuing opposition to it. Giving testimony on Capitol Hill in defence of the agreement, the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, also denied any linkage between the two issues. He said he at no time had he discussed Mr Pollard while negotiating with Iran alongside other world powers, including Britain.
