Washington – Jonathan Pollard, the Jewish spy accused of giving Israel classified information about the U.S. in 1985, was denied his recent parole request by the Obama administration 29 years after he began his sentence.
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Channel 2 Israel (http://bit.ly/1vq5bv5) reports a hearing held last July showed that Pollard, 60, met the criteria for release for being a model prisoner during his three decades, but the government still opposed a conditional release.
Last April, the U.S. talk of a possible release of Pollard as part of an effort to extend the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians surfaced.
In recent years, many American and foreign officials have urged President Obama to limit Pollard’s sentence or release him, stating that other criminals who committed more severe offenses did not spend as much time in prison as Pollard has.
Reports have said that Pollard’s health is failing, and that he was hospitalized and has gone into surgery several times outside the prison. Nov. 21 will mark 30 years that Pollard has been imprisoned.
Information taken from Channel 2 Israel
After 30 years in prison, several years of which was in solitary, routine clemency should kick in. No one has served this much time for the crime he is accused of. Plainly, it is what is is: anti-Semitism.
What did you expect from the most anti Semitic president in US history? His muslim re threw would decapitate him if he dared give clemency to a Jew,
There is no parole in the Federal correctional system.What he wanted was either a full pardon which only the president can give or to be resentenced to time served.The previous president did not grant him a pardon either.
Is it correct that Jonathan Jay Pollard Register Number: 09185-016 will be released on Nov 21, 2015? That is what it says on the bureau of prisons web site when you search for inmate locator. Not that we can afford for him to sit even another moment, just wondering if that is the worst case scenario.
30 years. i bet if spied for saudi arabia he’d get 4 years
Israel wasn’t the first country that he tried to sell information to. He was an opportunist not a Zionist.
Wow – during this week of a heinous murder of sweet neshomos in Yerushalayim, you can all engage in such vitriolic speech? Such lack of compassion for Jonathan Pollard, who has done teshuvah and more than paid time for the crime. Such biting remarks to each other! Where is the achdus? Where is the rachmanus? How quickly we return to the toxic speech of ego-driven arrogance. Dai k’var, Yidden.
This is an emotional issue over which many Jews will strongly disagree, especially those whose professional careers have been adversely affected by lingering doubts about their loyalty to the U.S. I think a pardon is unwarranted and would reopen old wounds.
The law that was in effect at the time of Pollard’s arrest was that automatic parole is to be granted after 30 years with a few exceptions that clearly do not apply to Pollard’s case. The US Department of Justice Inmate Locator web site does show Pollard as having a release of 11/21/2015. The Parole Board may add conditions to his release, such as no travel.